UC-NRLF 


Compact 


A   PAPER    READ    BEFORE   THE   CHICAGO 
HISTORICAL  SOCIETY,  FEBRUARY  16,  1915 


BY 

WILLARD  C.  MAcNAUL 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
1915 


3fef{ergon=%emen  Compact 


The  Relations  of 

Thomas  Jefferson  and  James  Lemen 

in  the  Exclusion  of  Slavery  from  Illinois 

and  the  Northwest  Territory 

with  Related  Documents 

1781-1818 

A  Paper  read  before  the 

Chicago  Historical  Society 

February  16,  1915 
By 

Willard  C.  MacNaul 


The  University  of  Chicago  Press 
1915 


COPYRIGHT  BY 

CHICAGO  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY 
1915 


CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION 

1.  Sketch  of  James  Lemen 7 

2.  Lemen's  Relations  with  Jefferson  in  Virginia  .      .        9 

3.  Lemen's  Anti-Slavery  Mission  in  Illinois  — 

Slavery  in  Illinois  until  1787 11 

Prohibition  of  Slavery  by  Ordinance  of  1787  .  .  11 
The  Slavery  Conflict  under  Gov.  St.  Clair 

(1787-1800) 12 

The  Slavery  Conflict  under  Gov.  Harrison 

(1801-1809) 13 

Slavery  Question  in  the  Movement  for  Division 

of  Indiana  Territory  in  1808-9  ...  16 
James  Lemen's  Anti-Slavery  Influence  in  the 

Baptist  Churches  until  1809  .  .  .  .  16 
Slavery  under  Gov.  Ninian  Edwards  (1809- 

1818) 19 

Slavery  in  the  Campaign  for  Statehood  in 

1818 19 

4.  Available  Materials  Relating  to  the  Subject      .      .     23 

5.  Account  of  the  "Lemen  Family  Notes"     ...     24 

DOCUMENTS 

I.     DIARY  OF  JAMES  LEMEN,  SR 26 

II.     HISTORY  OF  THE  RELATIONS  OF  JAMES  LEMEN 

AND  THOS.  JEFFERSON,  BY  J.  M.  PECK    .      .  32 

III.  How  ILLINOIS  GOT  CHICAGO,  BY  Jos.  B.  LEMEN  37 

IV.  ADDRESS  TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF  FREEDOM     .      .  38 
V.     RECOLLECTIONS     OF     A     CENTENNARIAN,     BY 

DR.  W.  F.  BOYAKIN 39 

VI.     IN  MEMORY  OF  REV.  JAS.  LEMEN,  SR.  .      .      .  41 

VII.     STATEMENT  BY  EDITOR  OF  Belleville  Advocate  .  41 
VIII.     LETTER  OF  REV.  J.  M.  PECK  ON  THE  OLD  LEMEN 

FAMILY  NOTES 42 

330322 


Contents 


PIONEER   LETTERS 

IX.     LETTER  OF  SENATOR  DOUGLAS  TO  REV.  JAS. 

LEMEN,  SR 46 

X.    ANNOUNCEMENT  BY  J.  B.  LEMEN      ....     48 
XI.     LETTER   OF   Gov.   NINIAN   EDWARDS   TO   JAS. 

LEMEN,  JR 49 

XII.     LETTER  OF  A.  W.  SNYDER  TO  JAS.  LEMEN,  SR.     49 
XIII.     LETTER     OF     ABRAHAM     LINCOLN     TO     JAS. 

LEMEN,  JR 50 

XIV.    THE     LEMEN      MONUMENT — LEMEN  's      WAR 

RECORD 51 

XV.     SKETCH  OF  REV.  JAMES  LEMEN,  SR.,  BY  J.  M. 

PECK 52 

XVI.    OLD  LEMEN    FAMILY  NOTES,   STATEMENT    BY 

Jos.  B.  LEMEN 56 

REFERENCES  59 


NOTE 

The  materials  here  presented  were  collected  in  connection 
with  the  preparation  of  a  history  of  the  first  generation  of 
Illinois  Baptists.  The  narrative  introduction  is  printed 
substantially  as  delivered  at  a  special  meeting  of  the  Chicago 
Historical  Society,  and,  with  the  collection  of  documents, 
is  published  in  response  to  inquiries  concerning  the  so-called 
"Lemen  Family  Notes,"  and  in  compliance  with  the  request 
for  a  contribution  to  the  publications  of  this  Society.  It  is 
hoped  that  the  publication  may  serve  to  elicit  further  in 
formation  concerning  the  alleged  "Notes,"  the  existence  of 
which  has  become  a  subject  of  more  or  less  interest  to 
historians.  The  compiler  merely  presents  the  materials  at 
their  face  value,  without  assuming  to  pass  critical  judgment 
upon  them.  w.  c.  M. 


INTRODUCTION 

RELATIONS   OF  JAMES   LEMEN  AND 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON   IN  THE   EXCLUSION   OF 

SLAVERY  FROM   ILLINOIS  AND  THE 

NORTHWEST  TERRITORY 

In  view  of  the  approaching  centennary  of  statehood  in 
Illinois,  the  name  of  James  Lemen  takes  on  a  timely  interest 
because  of  his  services  —  social,  religious,  and  political  — 
in  the  making  of  the  Commonwealth.  He  was  a  native  of 
Virginia,  born  and  reared  in  the  vicinity  of  Harper's  Ferry. 
He  served  a  two-years'  enlistment  in  the  Revolutionary  War 
under  Washington,  and  afterwards  returned  to  his  regiment 
during  the  siege  of  Yorktown.  His  "Yorktown  Notes" 
in  his  diary  give  some  interesting  glimpses  of  his  participa 
tion  in  that  campaign.1  His  Scotch  ancestors  had  served  in 
a  similar  cause  under  Cromwell,  whose  wedding  gift  to  one 
of  their  number  is  still  cherished  as  a  family  heirloom. 

Upon  leaving  the  army  James  Lemen  married  Catherine 
Ogle,  daughter  of  Captain  Joseph  Ogle,  whose  name  is 
perpetuated  in  that  of  Ogle  county,  Illinois.  The  Ogles 
were  of  old  English  stock,  some  of  whom  at  least  were  found 
on  the  side  of  Cromwell  and  the  Commonwealth.  Cathe 
rine's  family  at  one  time  lived  on  the  South  Branch  of  the 
Potomac,  although  at  the  time  of  her  marriage  her  home  was 
near  Wheeling.  Captain  Ogle's  commission,  signed  by 
Gov.  Patrick  Henry,  is  now  a  valued  possession  of  one  of 
Mrs.  Lemen's  descendents.  James  and  Catherine  Lemen 
were  well  fitted  by  nature  and  training  for  braving  the  hard 
ships  and  brightening  the  privations  of  life  on  the  frontier, 
far  removed  from  home  and  friends,  or  even  the  abodes  of 
their  nearest  white  kinsmen. 

During,  and  even  before  the  war,  young  Lemen  is  re 
puted  to  have  been  the  protege  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  through 
whose  influence  he  became  a  civil  and  religious  leader  in  the 
pioneer  period  of  Illinois  history.  Gov.  Reynolds,  in  his 
writings  relating  to  this  period,2  gives  various  sketches  of 
the  man  and  his  family,  and  his  name  occurs  frequently 


The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 


in  the  records  of  the  times.  He  was  among  the  first  to 
follow  Col.  Clark's  men  to  the  Illinois  country,  where  he 
established  the  settlement  of  New  Design,  one  of  the  earliest 
American  colonies  in  what  was,  previous  to  his  arrival,  the 
"Illinois  county"  of  the  Old  Dominion.  Here  he  served, 
first  as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  and  then  as  a  judge  of  the  court 
of  the  original  county  of  St.  Clair,  and  thus  acquired  the 
title  of  "Judge  Lemen."  3  Here,  too,  he  became  the  pro 
genitor  of  the  numerous  Illinois  branch  of  the  Lemen  family, 
whose  genealogy  and  family  history  was  recently  published 
by  Messrs.  Frank  and  Joseph  B.  Lemen  —  a  volume  of 
some  four  hundred  and  fifty  pages,  and  embracing  some  five 
hundred  members  of  the  family. 

True  to  his  avowed  purpose  in  coming  to  Illinois,  young 
Lemen  became  a  leader  of  anti-slavery  sentiment  in  the 
new  Territory,  and,  undoubtedly,  deserves  to  be  called  one 
of  the  Fathers  of  the  Free  State  Constitution,  which  was 
framed  in  1818  and  preserved  in  1824.  His  homestead,  the 
"Old  Lemen  Fort"  at  New  Design,  which  is  still  the  com 
fortable  home  of  the  present  owner,  is  the  birthplace  of  the 
Baptist  denomination  in  Illinois;  and  he  himself  is  com 
memorated  as  the  recognized  founder  of  that  faith  in  this 
State,  by  a  granite  shaft  in  the  family  burial  plot  directly 
in  front  of  the  old  home.  This  memorial  was  dedicated  in 
1909  by  Col.  William  Jennings  Bryan,  whose  father,  Judge 
Bryan,  of  Salem,  Illinois,  was  the  first  to  suggest  it  as  a 
well-deserved  honor. 

James  Lemen,  Sr.,  also  became  the  father  and  leader  of 
the  noted  "Lemen  Family  Preachers,"  consisting  of  himself 
and  six  stalwart  sons,  all  but  one  of  whom  were  regularly 
ordained  Baptist  ministers.  The  eldest  son,  Robert,  al 
though  never  ordained,  was  quite  as  active  and  efficient  in 
the  cause  as  any  of  the  family.  This  remarkable  family 
eventually  became  the  nucleus  of  a  group  of  anti-slavery 
Baptist  churches  in  Illinois  which  had  a  very  important 
influence  upon  the  issue  of  that  question  in  the  State.  Rev. 
James  Lemen,  Jr.,  who  is  said  to  have  been  the  second  Amer 
ican  boy  born  in  the  Illinois  country,  succeeded  to  his  father's 
position  of  leadership  in  the  anti-slavery  movement  of  the 
times,  and  served  as  the  representative  of  St.  Clair  county 
in  the  Territorial  Legislature,  the  Constitutional  Conven 
tion,  and  the  State  Senate.  The  younger  James  Lemen  was 
on  terms  of  intimacy  with  Abraham  Lincoln  at  Springfield, 


Introduction 


and  his  cousin,  Ward  Lamon,  was  Lincoln's  early  associate 
in  the  law,  and  also  his  first  biographer.  Various  representa 
tives  of  the  family  in  later  generations  have  attained  success 
as  farmers,  physicians,  teachers,  ministers,  and  lawyers 
throughout  southern  Illinois  and  other  sections  of  the 
country.4 

The  elder  James  Lemen  was  himself  an  interesting 
character,  and,  entirely  apart  from  his  relations  with  Jeffer 
son,  he  is  a  significant  factor  in  early  Illinois  history.  His 
fight  for  free  versus  slave  labor  in  Illinois  and  the  North 
west  derives  a  peculiar  interest,  however,  from  its  associa 
tion  with  the  great  name  of  Jefferson.  The  principles  for 
which  the  latter  stood  —  but  not  necessarily  his  policies  — 
have  a  present-day  interest  for  us  greater  than  those  of  his 
contemporaries,  because  those  principles  are  the  "live 
issues"  of  our  own  times.  Jefferson  is  to  that  extent  our 
contemporary,  and  hence  his  name  lends  a  living  interest  to 
otherwise  obscure  persons  and  remote  events.  The  problem 
of  free  labor  versus  slave  labor  we  have  with  us  still,  and  in  a 
much  more  complex  and  widespread  form  than  in  Jefferson's 
day. 

According  to  the  current  tradition,  a  warm  personal 
friendship  sprang  up  between  JejFerson  and  young  Lemen, 
who  was  seventeen  years  the  junior  of  his  distinguished  pa 
tron  and  friend.  In  a  letter  to  Robert,  brother  of  James 
Lemen,  attributed  to  Jefferson,  he  writes:  "Among  all  my 
friends  who  are  near,  he  is  still  a  little  nearer.  I  discovered 
his  worth  when  he  was  but  a  child,  and  I  freely  confess  that 
in  some  of  my  most  important  achievements  his  example, 
wish,  and  advice,  though  then  but  a  very  young  man,  largely 
influenced  my  action."  In  a  sketch  of  the  relations  of  the 
two  men  by  Dr.  John  M.  Peck  we  are  told  that  "after 
Jefferson  became  President  of  the  United  States,  he  re 
tained  all  of  his  early  affection  for  Mr.  Lemen";  and  upon 
the  occasion  of  a  visit  of  a  mutual  friend  to  the  President, 
in  1808,  "he  inquired  after  him  with  all  the  fondness  of  a 
father.';5 

Their  early  relations  in  Virginia,  so  far  as  we  have  any 
account  of  them,  concerned  their  mutual  anti-slavery  in 
terests.  Peck  tells  us  that  "Mr.  Lemen  was  a  born  anti- 
slavery  leader,  and  had  proved  himself  such  in  Virginia  by 
inducing  scores  of  masters  to  free  their  slaves  through  his 
prevailing  kindness  of  manner  and  Christian  arguments." 


io  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

Concerning  the  cession  of  Virginia's  claims  to  the  North 
west  Territory,  Jefferson  is  thus  quoted,  from  his  letter  to 
Robert  Lemen:  "Before  any  one  had  even  mentioned  the 
matter,  James  Lemen,  by  reason  of  his  devotion  to  anti- 
slavery  principles,  suggested  to  me  that  we  (Virginia)  make 
the  transfer,  and  that  slavery  be  excluded;  and  it  so  im 
pressed  and  influenced  me  that  whatever  is  due  me  as  credit 
for  my  share  in  the  matter,  is  largely,  if  not  wholly,  due  to 
James  Lemen's  advice  and  most  righteous  counsel."5 

Before  this  transfer  was  effected,  it  appears  that  Jefferson 
had  entered  into  negotiations  with  his  young  protege  with  a 
view  to  inducing  him  to  locate  in  the  "Illinois  country" 
as  his  agent,  in  order  to  co-operate  with  himself  in  the  effort 
to  exclude  slavery  from  the  entire  Northwest  Territory. 
Mr.  Lemen  makes  record  of  an  interview  with  Jefferson 
under  date  of  December  11,  1782,  as  follows:  "Thomas  Jef 
ferson  had  me  to  visit  him  again  a  short  time  ago,  as  he 
wanted  me  to  go  to  the  Illinois  country  in  the  Northwest 
after  a  year  or  two,  in  order  to  try  to  lead  and  direct  the 
new  settlers  in  the  best  way,  and  also  to  oppose  the  introduc 
tion  of  slavery  into  that  country  at  a  later  day,  as  I  am 
known  as  an  opponent  of  that  evil;  and  he  says  he  will  give 
me  some  help.  It  is  all  because  of  his  great  kindness  and 
affection  for  me,  for  which  I  am  very  grateful;  but  I  have  not 
yet  fully  decided  to  do  so,  but  have  agreed  to  consider  the 
case."  In  May,  1784,  they  had  another  interview,  on  the 
eve  of  Jefferson's  departure  on  his  prolonged  mission  to 
France.  Mr.  Lemen's  memorandum  reads:  "I  saw  Jef 
ferson  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  to-day,  and  had  a  very 
pleasant  visit  with  him.  I  have  consented  to  go  to  Illinois 
on  his  mission,  and  he  intends  helping  me  some;  but  I  did 
not  ask  nor  wish  it.  We  had  a  full  agreement  and  under 
standing  as  to  all  terms  and  duties.  The  agreement  is 
strictly  private  between  us,  but  all  his  purposes  are  perfectly 
honorable  and  praiseworthy."  6 

Thus  the  mission  was  undertaken  which  proved  to  be 
his  life-work.  He  had  intended  starting  with  his  father- 
in-law,  Captain  Ogle,  in  1785,  but  was  detained  by  illness  in 
his  family.  December  28,  1785,  he  records:  "Jefferson's 
confidential  agent  gave  me  one  hundred  dollars  of  his  funds 
to  use  for  my  family,  if  need  be,  and  if  not,  to  go  to  good 
causes;  and  I  will  go  to  Illinois  on  his  mission  next  spring 
and  take  my  wife  and  children." 


Introduction 


ii 


Such  was  the  origin  and  nature  of  the  so-called  "  Jefferson- 
Lemen  Secret  Anti-Slavery  Compact,"  the  available  evidence 
concerning  which  will  be  given  at  the  conclusion  of  this 
paper.7  The  anti-slavery  propaganda  of  James  Lemen  and 
his  circle  constituted  a  determining  factor  in  the  history  of 
the  first  generation  of  Illinois  Baptists.  To  what  extent 
Lemen  co-operated  with  Jefferson  in  his  movements  will 
appear  as  we  proceed  with  the  story  of  his  efforts  to  make 
Illinois  a  free  State. 

The  "Old  Dominion"  ceded  her  "county  of  Illinois"  to 
the  National  domain  in  1784.  Jefferson's  effort  to  provide 
for  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  the  new  Territory  at  that 
date  proved  abortive.  Consequently,  when  James  Lemen 
arrived  at  the  old  French  village  of  Kaskaskia  in  July,  1786, 
he  found  slavery  legally  entrenched  in  all  the  former  French 
possessions  in  the  "Illinois  country."  It  had  been  intro 
duced  by  Renault,  in  1719,  who  brought  500  negroes  from 
Santo  Domingo  (then  a  French  possession)  to  work  the  mines 
which  he  expected  to  develop  in  this  section  of  the  French 
Colonial  Empire.8  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  slavery 
was  established  on  the  soil  of  Illinois  just  a  century  after  its 
introduction  on  the  shores  of  Virginia.  When  the  French 
possessions  were  taken  over  by  Great  Britain  at  the  close  of 
the  colonial  struggle  in  1763,  that  country  guaranteed  the 
French  inhabitants  the  possession  of  all  their  property, 
including  slaves.  When  Col.  Clark,  of  Virginia,  took  pos 
session  of  this  region  in  1778,  the  State  likewise  guaranteed 
the  inhabitants  the  full  enjoyment  of  all  their  property 
rights.  By  the  terms  of  the  Virginia  cession  of  1784  to  the 
National  Government,  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the 
former  citizens  of  Virginia  were  assured  to  them  in  the  ceded 
district.  Thus,  at  the  time  of  Lemen's  arrival,  slavery  had 
been  sanctioned  on  the  Illinois  prairies  for  sixty-seven  years. 
One  year  from  the  date  of  his  arrival,  however,  the  Ter 
ritorial  Ordinance  of  1787  was  passed,  with  the  prohibition 
of  slavery,  as  originally  proposed  by  Jefferson  in  1784.9 
Thus  it  would  seem  that  the  desired  object  had  already  been 
attained.  By  the  terms  of  the  famous  "Sixth  Article  of 
Compact,"  contained  in  that  Ordinance,  it  was  declared 
that  "there  shall  be  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  ser 
vitude  in  the  said  Territory,  otherwise  than  in  the  punish 
ment  of  crimes  whereof  the  accused  shall  have  been  duly 
convicted."  This  looks  like  a  sweeping  and  final  disposition 


12  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

of  the  matter,  but  it  was  not  accepted  as  such  until  the  lapse 
of  another  fifty-seven  years.  But  neither  Jefferson  nor  his 
agents  on  the  ground  had  anticipated  so  easy  a  victory. 
Indeed,  they  had  foreseen  that  a  determined  effort  would  be 
made  by  the  friends  of  slavery  to  legalize  that  institution  in 
the  Territory.  Almost  at  once,  in  fact,  the  conflict  com 
menced,  which  was  to  continue  actively  for  thirty-seven 
years.  Like  the  Nation  itself,  the  Illinois  country  was  to 
be  for  a  large  part  of  its  history  "half  slave  and  half  free"- 
both  in  sentiment  and  in  practice. 

Two  attempts  against  the  integrity  of  the  "Sixth  Article " 
were  made  during  Gov.  St.  Glair's  administration.  The 
trouble  began  with  the  appeals  of  the  French  slave-holders 
against  the  loss  of  their  slaves.10  As  civil  administration 
under  the  Territorial  government  was  not  established  among 
the  Illinois  settlements  until  1790,  both  the  old  French  in 
habitants  and  the  new  American  colonists  suffered  all 
manner  of  disabilities  and  distresses  in  the  interval  between 
1784  and  1790,  while  just  across  the  Mississippi  there  was 
a  settled  and  prosperous  community  under  the  Spanish 
government  of  Louisiana.  When,  therefore,  the  French 
masters  appealed  to  Gen.  St.  Glair,  in  1787,  to  protect  them 
against  the  loss  of  the  principal  part  of  their  wealth,  repre 
sented  by  their  slaves,  he  had  to  face  the  alternative  of  the 
loss  of  these  substantial  citizens  by  migration  with  their 
slaves  to  the  Spanish  side  of  the  river.  And,  in  order  to 
pacify  these  petitioners,  St.  Glair  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  Ordinance  was  not  retro 
active,  and  hence  did  not  affect  the  rights  of  the  French 
masters  in  their  previously  acquired  slave  property.  As 
this  view  accorded  with  the  "compact"  contained  in  the 
Virginia  deed  of  cession,  it  was  sanctioned  by  the  old  Con 
gress,  and  was  later  upheld  by  the  new  Federal  Government; 
and  this  construction  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787  continued  to 
prevail  in  Illinois  until  1845,  when  the  State  Supreme  Court 
decreed  that  the  prohibition  was  absolute,  and  that,  con 
sequently,  slavery  in  any  form  had  never  had  any  legal 
sanction  in  Illinois  since  1787. n 

It  does  not  appear  that  Mr.  Lemen  took  any  active 
measures  against  this  construction  of  the  anti-slavery 
ordinance  at  the  time.  He  was,  indeed,  himself  a  petitioner, 
with  other  American  settlers  on  the  "Congress  lands"  in 
Illinois,  for  the  recognition  of  their  claims,  which  were 


Introduction  13 


menaced  by  the  general  prohibition  of  settlement  then  in 
effect.12  Conditions  in  every  respect  were  so  insecure  prior 
to  the  organization  of  St.  Clair  county  in  1790,  that  it  was 
hardly  to  be  expected  that  any  vigorous  measure  could  be 
taken  against  previously  existing  slavery  in  the  colony, 
especially  as  the  Americans  were  then  living  in  station  forts 
for  protection  against  the  hostile  Indians.  Moreover, 
Jefferson  was  not  in  the  country  in  1787,  and  hence  there 
was  no  opportunity  for  co-operation  with  him  at  this  time. 
Mr.  Lemen  was,  however,  improving  the  opportunity 
"to  try  to  lead  and  direct  the  new  settlers  in  the  best  way"; 
for  we  find  him,  although  not  as  yet  himself  a  "professor" 
of  religion,  engaged  in  promoting  the  religious  observance  of 
the  Sabbath  on  the  part  of  the  "godfearing"  element  in  the 
station  fort  where,  with  his  father-in-law,  he  resided  (Fort 
Piggott).  In  1789  Jefferson  returned  from  France  to  be 
come  Secretary  of  State  in  President  Washington's  cabinet, 
under  the  new  Federal  Government.  He  had  not  forgotten 
his  friend  Lemen,  as  Dr.  Peck  assures  us  that  "he  lost  no 
time  in  sending  him  a  message  of  love  and  confidence  by 
a  friend  who  was  then  coming  to  the  West." 

St.  Glair's  construction  of  the  prohibition  of  slavery 
unfortunately  served  to  weaken  even  its  preventive  force 
and  emboldened  the  pro-slavery  advocates  to  seek  per 
sistently  for  the  repeal,  or,  at  least,  the  "suspension"  of 
the  obnoxious  Sixth  Article.  A  second  effort  was  made 
under  his  administration  in  1796,  when  a  memorial,  headed 
by  Gen.  John  Edgar,  was  sent  to  Congress  praying  for  the 
suspension  of  the  Article.  The  committee  of  reference,  of 
which  the  Hon.  Joshua  Coit  of  Connecticut  was  chairman, 
reported  adversely  upon  this  memorial,  May  12,  1796. 13 
It  is  not  possible  to  state  positively  Lemen's  influence,  if 
any,  in  the  defeat  of  this  appeal  of  the  leading  citizens  of  the 
old  French  villages.  But,  as  it  was  in  this  same  year  that 
the  first  Protestant  church  in  the  bounds  of  Illinois  was 
organized  in  his  house,  and,  as  we  are  informed  that  he  en 
deavored  to  persuade  the  constituent  members  of  the  New 
Design  church  to  oppose  slavery,  we  may  suppose  that  he 
was  already  taking  an  active  part  in  opposition  to  the 
further  encroachments  of  slavery,  especially  in  his  own 
community. 

The  effort  to  remove  the  prohibition  was  renewed  under 
Gov.  Wm.  Henry  Harrison,  during  the  connection  of  the 


14 The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

Illinois  settlements  with  the  Indiana  Territory,  from  1800 
to  1809.  Five  separate  attempts  were  made  during  these 
years,  which  coincide  with  the  term  of  President  Jefferson, 
who  had  removed  St.  Clair  to  make  room  for  Gen.  Harrison. 
Harrison,  however,  yielded  to  the  pressure  of  the  pro- 
slavery  element  in  the  Territory  to  use  his  power  and  in 
fluence  for  their  side  of  the  question.  Although  their 
proposals  were  thrice  favorably  reported  from  committee,  the 
question  never  came  to  a  vote  in  Congress.  The  first 
attempt  during  the  Indiana  period  was  that  of  a  pro-slavery 
convention,  called  at  the  instigation  of  the  Illinois  contingent, 
which  met  at  Vincennes,  in  1803,  under  the  chairmanship 
of  Gov.  Harrison.  Their  memorial  to  Congress,  requesting 
merely  a  temporary  suspension  of  the  prohibition,  was 
adversely  reported  from  committee  in  view  of  the  evident 
prosperity  of  Ohio  under  the  same  restriction,  and  because 
"the  committee  deem  it  highly  dangerous  and  inexpedient 
to  impair  a  provision  wisely  calculated  to  promote  the  hap 
piness  and  prosperity  of  the  Northwestern  country,  and  to 
give  strength  and  security  to  that  extensive  frontier." 
Referring  to  this  attempt  of  "the  extreme  southern  slave 
advocates  ...  for  the  introduction  of  slavery,"  Mr. 
Lemen  writes,  under  date  of  May  3,  1803,  that  "steps  must 
soon  be  taken  to  prevent  that  curse  from  being  fastened 
on  our  people."  The  same  memorial  was  again  introduced 
in  Congress  in  February,  1804,  with  the  provisos  of  a  ten-year 
limit  to  the  suspension  and  the  introduction  of  native  born 
slaves  only,  which,  of  course,  would  mean  those  of  the 
border-state  breeders.  Even  this  modified  proposal,  al 
though  approved  in  committee,  failed  to  move  Congress  to 
action.  Harrison  and  his  supporters  continued  nevertheless 
to  press  the  matter,  and  he  even  urged  Judge  Lemen,  in  a 
personal  interview,  to  lend  his  influence  to  the  movement 
for  the  introduction  of  slavery.  To  this  suggestion  Lemen 
replied  that  "the  evil  attempt  would  encounter  his  most  ac 
tive  opposition,  in  every  possible  and  honorable  manner  that 
his  mind  could  suggest  or  his  means  accomplish."14 

It  was  about  this  time  that  the  Governor  and  judges 
took  matters  in  their  own  hands  and  introduced  a  form  of 
indentured  service,  which,  although  technically  within  the 
prohibition  of  involuntary  servitude,  amounted  practically 
to  actual  slavery.  Soon  after,  in  order  to  give  this  in 
stitution  a  more  secure  legal  sanction,  by  legislative  en- 


Introduction  15 


actment,  the  second  grade  of  territorial  government  was 
hastily  and  high-handedly  forced  upon  the  people  for  this 
purpose.  It  was  probably  in  view  of  these  measures  that 
Mr.  Lemen  recorded  his  belief  that  President  Jefferson 
"will  find  means  to  overreach  the  evil  attempts  of  the 
pro-slavery  party."  Early  in  the  year  1806  the  Vincennes 
memorial  was  introduced  into  Congress  for  the  third  time 
and  again  favorably  reported  from  committee,  but  to  no 
avail.  It  was  about  this  time,  as  we  learn  from  his  diary, 
that  Mr.  Lemen  "sent  a  messenger  to  Indiana  to  ask  the 
churches  and  people  there  to  get  up  and  sign  a  counter 
petition,  to  uphold  freedom  in  the  Territory,"  circulating  a 
similar  petition  in  Illinois  himself.15 

A  fourth  attempt  to  bring  the  proposal  before  Congress 
was  made  in  January,  1807,  in  a  formal  communication 
from  the  Governor  and  Territorial  Legislature.  The  pro 
posal  was  a  third  time  favorably  reported  by  the  committee 
of  reference,  but  still  without  action  by  the  House.  Finally, 
in  November  of  the  same  year,  President  Jefferson  trans 
mitted  to  Congress  similar  communications  from  the  Indiana 
government.  This  time  the  committee  reported  that 
"the  citizens  of  Clark  county  [in  which  was  located  the 
first  Baptist  church  organized  in  Indiana],  in  their  remon 
strance,  express  their  sense  of  the  impropriety  of  the  meas 
ure";  and  that  they  also  requested  Congress  not  to,  act 
upon  the  subject  until  the  people  had  an  opportunity  to 
formulate  a  State  Constitution.16  Commenting  upon  the 
whole  proceedings,  Dr.  Peck  quotes  Gov.  Harrison  to  the 
effect  that,  though  he  and  Lemen  were  firm  friends,  the  latter 
"had  set  his  iron  will  against  slavery,  and  indirectly  made 
his  influence  felt  so  strongly  at  Washington  and  before 
Congress,  that  all  the  efforts  to  suspend  the  anti-slavery 
clause  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  failed."  17  Peck  adds  that 
President  Jefferson  "quietly  directed  his  leading  confidential 
friends  in  Congress  steadily  to  defeat  Gen.  Harrison's  peti 
tions  for  the  repeal."  17 

It  was  about  this  time,  September  10, 1807,  that  President 
Jefferson  thus  expressed  his  estimate  of  James  Lemen's 
services,  in  his  letter  to  Robert  Lemen:  "His  record  in 
the  new  country  has  fully  justified  my  course  in  inducing 
him  to  settle  there  with  the  view  of  properly  shaping  events 
in  the  best  interest  of  the  people."  18  It  was  during  this 
period  of  the  Indiana  agitation  for  the  introduction  of 


1 6  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

slavery,  as  we  learn  from  an  entry  in  his  diary  dated  Sep 
tember  10,  1806,  that  Mr.  Lemen  received  a  call  from  an 
agent  of  Aaron  Burr  to  solicit  his  aid  and  smypathy  in  Burr's 
scheme  for  a  southwestern  empire,  with  Illinois  as  a  Province, 
and  an  offer  to  make  him  governor.  "But  I  denounced  the 
conspiracy  as  high  treason,"  he  says,  "and  gave  him  a  few 
hours  to  leave  the  Territory  on  pain  of  arrest."  19  It  should 
be  noted  that  at  this  date  he  was  not  himself  a  magistrate, 
which,  perhaps,  accounts  for  his  apparent  leniency  towards 
what  he  regarded  as  a  treasonable  proposal. 

The  year  1809,  the  date  of  the  separation  of  Illinois 
from  the  Indiana  Territory,  marks  a  crisis  in  the  Lemen 
anti-slavery  campaign  in  Illinois.20  The  agitation  under 
the  Indiana  government  for  the  further  recognition  of  slavery 
in  the  Territory  was  mainly  instigated  by  the  Illinois  slave 
holders  and  their  sympathizers  among  the  American  settlers 
from  the  slave  states.  The  people  of  Indiana  proper,  except 
those  of  the  old  French  inhabitants  of  Vincennes,  who  were 
possessed  of  slaves,  were  either  indifferent  or  hostile  towards 
slavery.  Its  partisans  in  the  Illinois  counties  of  the  Ter 
ritory,  in  the  hope  of  promoting  their  object  thereby,  now 
sought  division  of  the  Indiana  Territory  and  the  erection  of  a 
separate  government  for  Illinois  at  Kaskaskia.  This 
movement  aroused  a  bitter  political  struggle  in  the  Illinois 
settlements,  one  result  of  which  was  the  murder  of  young 
Rice  Jones  in  the  streets  of  Kaskaskia.  The  division  was 
advocated  on  the  ground  of  convenience  and  opposed  on  the 
score  of  expense.  The  divisionists,  however,  seem  to  have 
been  animated  mainly  by  the  desire  to  secure  the  introduc 
tion  of  slavery  as  soon  as  statehood  could  be  attained  for 
their  section.  The  division  was  achieved  in  1809,  and  with 
it  the  prompt  adoption  of  the  system  of  indentured  service 
already  in  vogue  under  the  Indiana  government.  And  from 
that  time  forth  the  fight  was  on  between  the  free-state  and 
slave-state  parties  in  the  new  Territory.  Throughout  the 
independent  territorial  history  of  Illinois,  slavery  was 
sanctioned  partly  by  law  and  still  further  by  custom.  Gov. 
Ninian  Edwards,  whose  religious  affiliations  were  with  the 
Baptists,  not  only  sanctioned  slavery,  but,  as  is  well  known, 
was  himself  the  owner  of  slaves  during  the  territorial  period. 

It  was  in  view  of  this  evident  determination  to  make 
of  Illinois  Territory  a  slave  state,  that  James  Lemen,  with 
Jefferson's  approval,  took  the  radical  step  of  organizing 


Introduction  17 


a  distinctively  anti-slavery  church  as  a  means  of  promoting 
the  free-state  cause.21  From  the  first,  indeed,  he  had  sought 
to  promote  the  cause  of  temperance  and  of  anti-slavery 
in  and  through  the  church.  He  tells  us  in  his  diary,  in  fact, 
that  he  ''hoped  to  employ  the  churches  as  a  means  of  op 
position  to  the  institution  of  slavery."  21  He  was  reared 
in  the  Presbyterian  faith,  his  stepfather  being  a  minister 
of  that  persuasion;  but  at  twenty  years  of  age  he  embraced 
Baptist  principles,  apparently  under  the  influence  of  a 
Baptist  minister  in  Virginia,  whose  practice  it  was  to  bar 
from  membership  all  who  upheld  the  institution  of  slavery. 
He  thus  identified  himself  with  the  struggles  for  civil,  re 
ligious,  and  industrial  liberty,  all  of  which  were  then  actively 
going  on  in  his  own  state. 

The  name  of  "New  Design,"  which  became  attached 
to  the  settlement  which  he  established  on  the  upland  prairies 
beyond  the  bluffs  of  the  "American  Bottom,"  is  said  to  have 
originated  from  a  quaint  remark  of  his  that  he  "had  a 
'new  design'  to  locate  a  settlement  south  of  Bellefontaine" 
near  the  present  town  of  Waterloo.22  The  name  "New 
Design,"  however,  became  significant  of  his  anti-slavery 
mission;  and  when,  after  ten  years  of  pioneer  struggles,  he 
organized  The  Baptist  Church  of  Christ  at  New  Design,  in 
1796,  he  soon  afterwards  induced  that  body  —  the  first 
Protestant  church  in  the  bounds  of  the  present  State  —  to 
adopt  what  were  known  as  "Tarrant's  Rules  Against 
Slavery."  The  author  of  these  rules,  the  Rev.  James 
Tarrant,  of  Virginia,  later  of  Kentucky,  one  of  the  "eman 
cipating  preachers,"  eventually  organized  the  fraternity  of 
anti-slavery  Baptist  churches  in  Kentucky,  who  called 
themselves  "Friends  to  Humanity." 

From  1796  to  1809  Judge  Lemen  was  active  in  the  pro 
motion  of  Baptist  churches  and  a  Baptist  Association.  He 
labored  to  induce  all  these  organizations  to  adopt  his  anti- 
slavery  principles,  and  in  this  he  was  largely  successful;  but, 
with  the  increase  of  immigrant  Baptists  from  the  slave 
states,  it  became  increasingly  difficult  to  maintain  these 
principles  in  their  integrity.  And  when,  in  the  course  of 
the  campaign  for  the  division  of  the  Territory  in  1808,  it 
became  apparent  that  the  lines  between  the  free-state  and 
the  slave-state  forces  were  being  decisively  drawn,  Lemen 
prepared  to  take  a  more  radical  stand  in  the  struggle.  With 
this  design  in  view  he  asked  and  obtained  the  formal  sanction 


1 8  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

of  his  church  as  a  licensed  preacher.  In  the  course  of  the 
same  year,  1808,  he  is  said  to  have  received  a  confidential 
message  from  Jefferson  "suggesting  a  division  of  the  churches 
on  the  question  of  slavery,  and  the  organization  of  a  church 
on  a  strictly  anti-slavery  basis,  for  the  purpose  of  heading 
a  movement  to  make  Illinois  a  free  state."  21  According 
to  another,  and  more  probable,  version  of  this  story,  when 
Jefferson  learned,  through  a  mutual  friend  (Mr.  S.  H.  Biggs), 
of  Lemen's  determination  to  force  the  issue  in  the  church 
to  the  point  of  division,  if  necessary,  he  sent  him  a  message 
of  approval  of  his  proposed  course  and  accompanied  it  with 
a  contribution  of  $20  for  the  contemplated  anti-slavery 
church. 

The  division  of  the  Territory  was  effected  early  in  the  year 
1809,  and  in  the  summer  of  that  year,  after  vainly  trying  to 
hold  all  the  churches  to  their  avowed  anti-slavery  principles, 
Elder  Lemen,  in  a  sermon  at  Richland  Creek  Baptist  church, 
threw  down  the  gauntlet  to  his  pro-slavery  brethren  and 
declared  that  he  could  no  longer  maintain  church  fellowship 
with  them.  His  action  caused  a  division  in  the  church, 
which  was  carried  into  the  Association  at  its  ensuing  meeting, 
in  October,  1809,  and  resulted  in  the  disruption  of  that  body 
into  three  parties  on  the  slavery  question  —  the  conserva 
tives,  the  liberals,  and  the  radicals.  The  latter  element, 
headed  by  "the  Lemen  party,"  as  it  now  came  to  be  called, 
held  to  the  principles  of  The  Friends  to  Humanity,  and 
proposed  to  organize  a  branch  of  that  order  of  Baptists. 
When  it  came  to  the  test,  however,  the  new  church  was 
reduced  to  a  constituent  membership  consisting  of  some 
seven  or  eight  members  of  the  Lemen  family.  Such  was  the 
beginning  of  what  is  now  the  oldest  surviving  Baptist  church 
in  the  State,  which  then  took  the  name  of  "The  Baptized 
Church  of  Christ,  Friends  to  Humanity,  on  Cantine  (Quen- 
tin)  Creek."  It  is  located  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  old 
Cahokia  mound.  Its  building,  when  it  came  to  have  one, 
was  called  "Bethel  Meeting  House,"  and  in  time^the  church 
itself  became  known  as  "Bethel  Baptist  Church." 

The  distinctive  basis  of  this  church  is  proclaimed  in 
its  simple  constitution,  to  which  every  member  was  re 
quired  to  subscribe:  "Denying  union  and  communion  with 
all  persons  holding  the  doctrine  of  perpetual,  involuntary, 
hereditary  slavery."  This  church  began  its  career  as  "a 
family  church,"  in  the  literal  sense  of  the  word;  but  it  pros- 


Introduction  19 


pered  nevertheless,  until  it  became  a  numerically  strong  and 
vigorous  organization  which  has  had  an  active  and  honorable 
career  of  a  hundred  years'  duration.  Churches  of  the  same 
name  and  principles  multiplied  and  maintained  their  un 
compromising  but  discriminating  opposition  to  slavery  so 
long  as  slavery  remained  a  local  issue;  after  which  time  they 
were  gradually  absorbed  into  the  general  body  of  ordinary 
Baptist  churches. 

During  the  period  of  the  Illinois  Territory,  1809  to  1818, 
Elder  Lemen  kept  up  a  most  energetic  campaign  of  opposition 
to  slavery,  by  preaching  and  rigorous  church  discipline  in  the 
application  of  the  rules  against  slavery.  He  himself  was 
regularly  ordained  soon  after  the  organization  of  his  anti- 
slavery  church.  His  sons,  James  and  Joseph,  and  his 
brother-in-law,  Benjamin  Ogle,  were  equally  active  in  the 
ministry  during  this  period,  and,  before  its  close,  they  had 
two  churches  firmly  established  in  Illinois,  with  others  of  the 
same  order  in  Missouri. 

"The  church,  properly  speaking,  never  entered  politics," 
Dr.  Peck  informs  us,  "but  presently,  when  it  became  strong, 
the  members  all  formed  what  they  called  the  'Illinois  Anti- 
Slavery  League/  and  it  was  this  body  that  conducted  the 
anti-slavery  contest." 23  The  contest  culminated  in  the 
campaign  for  statehood  in  1818. 

At  the  beginning  of  that  year  the  Territorial  Legislature 
petitioned  Congress  for  an  Enabling  Act,  which  was  presented 
by  the  Illinois  Delegate,  Hon.  Nathaniel  Pope.  As  chair 
man  of  the  committe  to  which  this  petition  was  referred, 
he  drew  up  a  bill  for  such  an  act  early  in  the  year.  In 
the  course  of  its  progress  through  the  House,  he  presented 
an  amendment  to  his  own  bill,  which  provided  for  the 
extension  of  the  northern  boundary  of  the  new  state.  Ac 
cording  to  the  provisions  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  the  line 
would  have  been  drawn  through  the  southern  border  of 
Lake  Michigan.  Pope's  amendment  proposed  to  extend 
it  so  as  to  include  some  sixty  miles  of  frontage  on  Lake 
Michigan,  thereby  adding  fourteen  counties,  naturally 
tributary  to  the  lake  region,  to  counterbalance  the  southern 
portion  of  the  State,  which  was  connected  by  the  river  system 
with  the  southern  slave  states.  Gov.  Thomas  Ford  states 
explicitly  that  Pope  made  this  change  "upon  his  own  re 
sponsibility,  ...  no  one  at  that  time  having  suggested 
or  requested  it."  This  statement  is  directly  contradicted 


20  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

in  Dr.  Peck's  sketch  of  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  written  in  1857. 
He  therein  states  that  this  extension  was  first  suggested  by 
Judge  Lemen,  who  had  a  government  surveyor  make  a  plat 
of  the  proposed  extension,  with  the  advantages  to  the  anti- 
slavery  cause  to  be  gained  thereby  noted  on  the  document, 
which  he  gave  to  Pope  with  the  request  to  have  it  embodied 
in  the  Enabling  Act.24  This  statement  was  repeated  and 
amplified  by  Mr.  Joseph  B.  Lemen  in  an  article  in  The 
Chicago  Tribune.^  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that  the  vote  of 
these  fourteen  northern  counties  secured  the  State  to  the 
anti-slavery  party  in  1856;  but  as  this  section  of  the  State 
was  not  settled  until  long  after  its  admission  into  the  Union, 
the  measure,  whatever  its  origin,  had  no  effect  upon  the 
Constitutional  Convention.  However,  John  Messinger,  of 
New  Design,  who  surveyed  the  Military  Tract  and,  later, 
also  the  northern  boundary  line,  may  very  well  have  made 
such  a  plat,  either  on  his  own  motion  or  at  the  suggestion 
of  the  zealous  anti-slavery  leader,  with  whom  he  was  well 
acquainted.  As  Messinger  was  later  associated  with  Peck 
in  the  Rock  Spring  Seminary,  and  in  the  publication  of  a 
sectional  map  of  Illinois,  it  would  seem  that  Peck  was  in  a 
position  to  know  the  facts  as  well  as  Ford. 

In  the  campaign  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  the 
Constitutional  Convention,  slavery  was  the  only  question 
seriously  agitated.  The  Lemen  churches  and  their  sympa 
thizers  were  so  well  organized  and  so  determined  in  purpose 
that  they  made  a  very  energetic  and  effective  campaign  for 
delegates.  Their  organization  for  political  purposes,  as 
Peck  informs  us,  "always  kept  one  of  its  members  and  several 
of  its  friends  in  the  Territorial  Legislature;  and  five  years 
before  the  constitutional  election  in  1818,  it  had  fifty 
resident  agents  —  men  of  like  sympathies  —  quietly  at  work 
in  the  several  settlements;  and  the  masterly  manner  in 
which  they  did  their  duty  was  shown  by  a  poll  which  they 
made  of  the  voters  some  few  weeks  before  the  election, 
which,  on  their  side,  varied  only  a  few  votes  from  the  official 
count  after  the  election."  23 

It  is  difficult  to  determine  from  the  meager  records  of 
the  proceedings,  even  including  the  Journal  of  the  Conven 
tion  recently  published,  just  what  the  complexion  of  the 
body  was  on  the  slavery  question.  Mr.  W.  Kitchell,  a 
descendant  of  one  of  the  delegates,  states  that  there  were 
twelve  delegates  that  favored  the  recognition  of  slavery  by 


Introduction  2 1 


a  specific  article  in  the  Constitution,  and  twenty-one  that 
opposed  such  action.  Gov.  Coles,  who  was  present  as  a 
visitor  and  learned  the  sentiments  of  the  prominent  members, 
says  that  many,  but  not  a  majority  of  the  Convention,  were 
in  favor  of  making  Illinois  a  slave  state.26  During  the 
session  of  the  Convention  an  address  to  The  Friends  of 
Freedom  was  published  by  a  company  of  thirteen  leading 
men,  including  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  to  the  effect  that  a  deter 
mined  effort  was  to  be  made  in  the  Convention  to  give 
sanction  to  slavery,  and  urging  concerted  action  "to  defeat 
the  plans  of  those  who  wish  either  a  temporary  or  an  un 
limited  slavery."  27  A  majority  of  the  signers  of  this  address 
were  Lemen's  Baptist  friends,  and  its  phraseology  points 
to  him  as  its  author. 

James  Lemen,  Jr.,  was  a  delegate  from  St.  Clair  county 
and  a  member  of  the  committee  which  drafted  the  Constitu 
tion.  In  the  original  draft  of  that  instrument,  slavery  was 
prohibited  in  the  identical  terms  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787, 
as  we  learn  from  the  recently  published  journal  of  the  Con 
vention.  In  the  final  draft  this  was  changed  to  read: 
"Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  shall  hereafter 
be  introduced,"  and  the  existing  system  of  indentured  service 
was  also  incorporated.  These  changes  were  the  result  of 
compromise,  and  Lemen  consistently  voted  against  them. 
He  was  nevertheless  one  of  the  committee  of  three  appointed 
to  revise  and  engross  the  completed  instrument. 

The  result  was  a  substantial  victory  for  the  Free-State 
Party;  and  had  the  Convention  actually  overridden  the 
prohibition  contained  in  the  original  Territorial  Ordinance, 
as  it  was  then  interpreted,  it  is  evident,  from  the  tone  of  the 
address  to  The  Friends  of  Freedom,  that  the  Lemen  circle 
would  have  made  a  determined  effort  to  defeat  the  measure 
in  Congress.27 

Dr.  Peck,  who,  like  Gov.  Coles,  was  a  visitor  to  the  Conven 
tion,  and  who  had  every  opportunity  to  know  all  the  facts,  in 
summing  up  the  evidence  in  regard  to  the  matter,  declares  it 
to  be  "conclusive  that  Mr.  Lemen  created  and  organized 
the  forces  which  confirmed  Illinois,  if  not  the  Northwest 
Territory,  to  freedom."  Speaking  of  the  current  impression 
that  the  question  of  slavery  was  not  much  agitated  in 
Illinois  prior  to  the  Constitutional  Convention,  Gov.  Coles 
says:  "On  the  contrary,  at  a  very  early  period  of  the  settle 
ment  of  Illinois,  the  question  was  warmly  agitated  by 


22  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

zealous  advocates  and  opponents  of  slavery/'  and  that, 
although  during  the  period  of  the  independent  Illinois 
Territory  the  agitation  was  lulled,  it  was  not  extinguished, 
"as  was  seen  [from]  its  mingling  itself  so  actively  both  in 
the  election  and  the  conduct  of  the  members  of  the  Con 
vention,  in  1818."  26 

Senator  Douglas,  in  a  letter  to  James  Lemen,  Jr.,  is 
credited  with  full  knowledge  of  the  "  Jefferson-Lemen  Anti- 
Slavery  Compact"  and  a  high  estimate  of  its  significance  in 
the  history  of  the  slavery  contest  in  Illinois  and  the  North 
west  Territory.  "This  matter  assumes  a  phase  of  personal 
interest  with  me,"  he  says,  "and  I  find  myself,  politically, 
in  the  good  company  of  Jefferson  and  your  father.  With 
them  everything  turned  on  whether  the  people  of  the  Ter 
ritory  wanted  slavery  or  not,  .  .  .  and  that  appears  to 
me  to  be  the  correct  doctrine."  28  Lincoln,  too,  in  a  letter 
to  the  younger  James  Lemen,  is  quoted  as  having  a  personal 
knowledge  of  the  facts  and  great  respect  for  the  senior  Lemen 
in  the  conflict  for  a  free  state  in  Illinois.  "Both  your  father 
and  Lovejoy,"  he  remarks,  "were  pioneer  leaders  in  the  cause 
of  freedom,  and  it  h?,s  always  been  difficult  for  me  to  see 
why  your  father,  who  was  a  resolute,  uncompromising,  and 
aggressive  leader,  who  boldly  proclaimed  his  purpose  to 
make  both  the  Territory  and  the  State  free,  never  aroused 
nor  encountered  any  of  that  mob  violence  which,  both  in 
St.  Louis  and  in  Alton,  confronted  and  pursued  Lovejoy."  29 
Of  the  latter  he  says:  "His  letters,  among  your  old  family 
notes,  were  of  more  interest  to  me  than  even  those  of  Thomas 
Jefferson  to  your  father." 

Jefferson's  connection  with  Lemen's  anti-slavery  mission 
in  Illinois  was  never  made  public,  apparently,  until  the  facts 
were  published  by  Mr.  Joseph  B.  Lemen,  of  the  third  genera 
tion,  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  in  connection  with  the 
centennary  anniversaries  of  the  events  involved.  However, 
the  "compact"  was  a  matter  of  family  tradition,  based  upon 
a  collection  of  letters  and  notes  handed  down  from  father  to 
son.  Jefferson's  reasons  for  keeping  the  matter  secret,  as 
Dr.  Peck  explains,  were,  first,  to  prevent  giving  the  impres 
sion  that  he  was  seeking  his  own  interests  in  the  territories, 
and,  second,  to  avoid  arousing  the  opposition  of  his  southern 
friends  who  desired  the  extension  of  slavery.  Lemen,  on 
the  other  hand,  did  not  wish  to  have  it  thought  that  his 
actions  were  controlled  by  political  considerations,  or 


Introduction  23 


subject  to  the  will  of  another.  Moreover,  when  he  learned 
that  Jefferson  was  regarded  as  "an  unbeliever/'  he  is  said 
to  have  wept  bitterly  lest  it  should  be  thought  that,  in  his 
work  for  the  church  and  humanity,  he  had  been  influenced 
by  an  "infidel";  and,  sometime  before  his  death,  he  exacted 
a  promise  of  his  sons  and  the  few  friends  who  were  acquainted 
with  the  nature  of  his  compact  with  Jefferson  that  they 
would  not  make  it  known  while  he  lived.30  Under  the  in 
fluence  of  this  feeling  on  the  part  of  their  father,  the  family 
kept  the  facts  to  themselves  and  a  few  confidential  friends 
until  after  the  lapse  of  a  century,  when  the  time  came  to 
commemorate  the  achievements  of  their  ancestor. 

How  much  of  the  current  tradition  is  fact  and  how  much 
fiction  is  hard  to  determine,  as  so  little  of  the  original  doc 
umentary  material  is  now  available.  The  collection  of 
materials  herewith  presented  consists  of  what  purport  to 
be  authentic  copies  of  the  original  documents  in  question. 
They  are  put  in  this  form  in  the  belief  that  their  significance 
warrants  it,  and  in  the  hope  that  their  publication  may  elicit 
further  light  on  the  subject.  These  materials  consist  of 
three  sorts,  viz.;  a  transcript  of  the  Diary  of  James  Lemen, 
Sr.,  a  manuscript  History  of  the  confidential  relations  of 
Lemen  and  Jefferson,  prepared  by  Rev.  John  M.  Peck,  and 
a  series  of  letters  from  various  public  men  to  Rev.  James 
Lemen,  Jr.  The  Diary  and  manuscript  "History"  were 
located  by  the  compiler  of  this  collection  among  the  papers 
of  the  late  Dr.  Edward  B.  Lemen,  of  Alton,  Illinois.  These 
documents  are  now  in  the  possession  of  his  son-in-law,  Mr. 
Wykoff,  who  keeps  them  in  his  bank  vault.  The  collection 
of  letters  was  published  at  various  times  by  Mr.  Joseph  B. 
Lemen,  of  Collinsville,  Illinois,  in  The  Belleville  Advocate, 
of  Belleville,  Illinois.  The  Diary  is  a  transcript  of  the 
original,  attested  by  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Jr.  The  "History" 
is  a  brief  sketch,  in  two  chapters,  prepared  from  the  original 
documents  by  Dr.  Peck  while  he  was  pastor  of  the  Bethel 
Church,  in  June,  1851,  and  written  at  his  dictation  by  the 
hand  of  an  assistant,  as  the  document  itself  expressly  states. 
Mr.  Joseph  Lemen,  who  is  responsible  for  the  letters,  is  the 
son  of  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Jr.,  and  one  of  the  editors  of  the 
Lemen  Family  History.  The  editor  of  The  Belleville  Ad 
vocate  states  that  Mr.  Lemen  has  contributed  to  various 
metropolitan  newspapers  in  the  political  campaigns  of  his 
party,  from  those  of  Lincoln  to  those  of  McKinley.31  He 


24 The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

also  contributed  extended  sketches  of  the  Baptist  churches 
of  St.  Clair  county  for  one  of  the  early  histories  of  that 
county.  He  took  an  active  part  in  promoting  the  movement 
to  commemorate  his  grandfather,  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  in 
connection  with  the  centennary  anniversaries  of  the  churches 
founded  at  New  Design  and  Quentin  Creek  (Bethel). 

The  originals  of  these  materials  are  said  to  have  com 
posed  part  of  a  collection  of  letters  and  documents  known 
as  the  "Lemen  Family  Notes,"  which  has  aroused  consider 
able  interest  and  inquiry  among  historians  throughout  the 
country.  The  history  of  this  collection  is  somewhat  un 
certain.  It  was  begun  by  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  whose  diary, 
containing  his  "Yorktown  Notes"  and  other  memoranda,  is 
perhaps  its  most  interesting  survival.  While  residing  in  the 
station  fort  on  the  Mississippi  Bottom  during  the  Indian 
troubles  of  his  early  years  in  the  Illinois  country,  he  made  a 
rude  walnut  chest  in  which  to  keep  his  books  and  papers. 
This  chest,  which  long  continued  to  be  used  as  the  depository 
of  the  family  papers,  is  still  preserved,  in  the  Illinois  Baptist 
Historical  Collection,  at  the  Carnegie  Library,  Alton,  Illinois. 
It  is  said  that  Abraham  Lincoln  once  borrowed  it  from  Rev. 
James  Lemen,  Jr.,  for  the  sake  of  its  historical  associations, 
and  used  it  for  a  week  as  a  receptacle  for  his  own  papers. 
Upon  the  death  of  the  elder  Lemen  the  family  notes  and 
papers  passed  to  James,  Jr.,  who  added  to  it  many  letters 
from  public  men  of  his  wide  circle  of  acquaintance. 

As  the  older  portions  of  the  collection  were  being  worn 
and  lost,  by  loaning  them  to  relatives  and  friends,  copies 
were  made  of  all  the  more  important  documents,  and  the  re 
maining  originals  were  then  placed  in  the  hands  of  Dr. 
J.  M.  Peck,  who  was  at  the  time  pastor  of  the  Bethel  Church, 
to  be  deposited  in  the  private  safe  of  a  friend  of  his  in  St. 
Louis.  As  the  slavery  question  was  then  (1851)  at  white 
heat,  it  is  not  surprising  that  Dr.  Peck  advised  the  family 
to  carefully  preserve  all  the  facts  and  documents  relating 
to  their  father's  anti-slavery  efforts  "until  some  future  time," 
lest  their  premature  publication  should  disturb  the  peace  of 
his  church.  As  late  as  1857  he  writes  of  "that  dangerous 
element  in  many  of  the  old  letters  bearing  on  the  anti-slavery 
contest  of  1818,"  and  adds,  "With  some  of  those  interested 
in  that  contest,  in  fifty  years  from  this  time,  the  publication 
of  these  letters  would  create  trouble  between  the  descendants 
of  many  of  our  old  pioneer  families."  6 


Introduction  25 


A  man  by  the  name  of  J.  M.  Smith  is  suggested  by  Dr. 
Peck  as  the  custodian  of  the  originals.  When  this  gentleman 
died,  the  documents  in  his  care  are  supposed  to  have  been 
either  lost  or  appropriated  by  parties  unknown  to  the  Lemen 
family.  Mr.  Joseph  B.  Lemen  relates  that  a  certain  party 
at  one  time  represented  to  the  family  that  he  had  located  the 
papers  and  offered,  for  a  suitable  consideration,  to  recover 
them.  This  proved  to  be  merely  a  scheme  to  obtain  money 
under  false  pretenses.6  Various  other  accounts  are  current 
of  the  disposition  of  the  original  papers;  but  as  yet  none  of 
them  have  been  located. 

The  transcripts  of  the  collection,  made  by  James  Lemen, 
Jr.,  came  into  the  hands  of  his  son,  Joseph  Bowler  Lemen, 
who  is  responsible  for  the  publication  of  various  portions  of 
the  story,  including  some  of  the  letters  entire.  Even  these 
copies,  however,  are  not  accessible  at  the  present  time,  ex 
cept  that  of  the  Lemen  Diary,  as  located  by  the  present 
writer.  Joseph  Lemen's  account  of  the  fate  of  the  elusive 
documents  is  given  in  full  at  the  end  of  this  publication.  He 
there  states  that  every  paper  of  any  value  was  copied  and 
preserved,  but  even  these  copies  were  dissipated  to  a  large 
extent.  He  also  claims  that  all  the  facts  contained  in  these 
documents  have  been  published  in  one  form  or  another, 
"except  a  very  few,  including  Rev.  James  Lemen's  interviews 
with  Lincoln,  as  written  up  by  Mr.  Lemen  on  ten  pages  of 
legal  cap  paper."  This  Joseph  B.  Lemen  is  now  far  ad 
vanced  in  years,  has  long  been  a  recluse,  and  has  the  reputa 
tion  of  being  "peculiar."  In  a  personal  interview  with  him, 
the  present  writer  could  elicit  no  further  facts  regarding 
the  whereabouts  of  the  "Lemen  Family  Notes."  Never 
theless,  the  discovery  of  the  copy  of  the  Lemen  Diary  and 
the  manuscript  of  Dr.  Peck's  "History"  gives  encourage 
ment  to  hope  for  further  discoveries,  which  should  be  re 
ported  to  the  Chicago  Historical  Society. 


DOCUMENTS 

I.    DIARY  OF  REV.   JAMES  LEMEN,   SR. 

Ridge  Prairie,  111.  June  4,  1867. 

The  within  notes  are  a  true  copy  of  the  notes  kept  by 
the  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  when  in  the  siege  at  Yorktown. 
The  original  notes  were  fading  out. 

By  his  son,  REV.  JAMES  LEMEN,  JR. 


Near  Yorktown,  Va.  Sep.  26,  1781. 

My  enlistment  of  two  years  expired  some  time  ago,  but 
I  joined  my  regiment  to-day  and  will  serve  in  this  siege. 

Quarters,  near  Yorktown,  Sept.  27,  1781. 
I  was  on  one  of  the  French  ships  to-day  with  my  captain. 
There  is  a  great  fleet  of  them  to  help  us,  it  is  said,  if  we  fight 
soon. 

Sept.  30,  1781,  Near  Yorktown. 

Our  regiment  has  orders  to  move  forward  this  morning, 
and  the  main  army  is  moving. 

Near  Yorktown.     Oct.  3,  1781. 

I  was  detailed  with  four  other  soldiers  to  return  an 
insane  British  soldier  who  had  come  into  our  lines,  as  we 
don't  want  such  prisoners. 

Near  Yorktown.     Oct.  4,  1781. 

I  carried  a  message  from  my  Colonel  to  Gen.  Washington 
to-day.  He  recognized  me  and  talked  very  kindly  and  said 
the  war  would  soon  be  over,  he  thought.  I  knew  Washington 
before  the  war  commenced. 

26 


Documents  27 


Near  Yorktown.     Oct.  4,  1781. 

I  saw  Washington  and  La  Fayette  looking  at  a  French 
soldier  and  an  American  soldier  wrestling,  and  the  American 
threw  the  Frenchman  so  hard  he  limped  off,  and  La  Fayette 
said  that  was  the  way  Washington  must  do  to  Cornwallis. 

Near  Yorktown.     Oct.  5,  1781. 

Brother  Robert  is  sick  to-day,  but  was  on  duty.  There 
was  considerable  firing  to-day.  There  will  be  a  great  fight 
soon. 

Near  Yorktown.     Oct.  15,  1781. 

I  was  in  the  assault  which  La  Fayette  led  yesterday 
evening  against  the  British  redoubt,  which  we  captured. 
Our  loss  was  nine  killed  and  thirty-four  wounded. 

Near  Yorktown.     Oct.  15,  1781. 

Firing  was  very  heavy  along  our  lines  on  Oct.  9th  and 
10th.  and  with  great  effect,  but  this  redoubt  and  another 
was  in  our  way  and  we  Americans  under  La  Fayette  cap 
tured  one  easily,  but  the  French  soldiers  who  captured  the 
other  suffered  heavily.  They  were  also  led  by  a  Frenchman. 

Yorktown.     Oct.  19,  1781. 

Our  victory  is  great  and  complete.  I  saw  the  surrender 
to-day.  Our  officers  think  this  will  probably  end  the  war. 


Ridge  Prairie,  111.     June  4,  1867. 

I  have  examined  the  within  notes  and  find  them  to  be 
correct  copies  of  notes  kept  by  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr., 
which  were  fading  out.  He  originally  kept  his  confidential 
notes,  as  to  his  agreement  with  Thomas  Jefferson,  in  a 
private  book,  but  as  this  is  intended  for  publication  at  some 
future  time,  they  are  all  copied  together. 

By  his  son,  REV.  JAMES  LEMEN,  JR. 

Harper's  Ferry,  Va.  Dec.  11,  1782. 

6Thomas  Jefferson  had  me  to  visit  him  again  a  short 
time  ago,  as  he  wanted  me  to  go  to  the  Illinois  country  in 
the  North  West,  after  a  year  or  two,  in  order  to  try  to  lead 


28  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

and  direct  the  new  settlers  in  the  best  way  and  also  to  oppose 
the  introduction  of  slavery  in  that  country  at  a  later  day, 
as  I  am  known  as  an  opponent  of  that  evil,  and  he  says  he 
will  give  me  some  help.  It  is  all  because  of  his  great  kindness 
and  affection  for  me,  for  which  I  am  very  grateful,  but  I 
have  not  yet  fully  decided  to  do  so,  but  have  agreed  to  con 
sider  the  case. 

Dec.  20,  1782. 

During  the  war,  I  served  a  two  years'  enlistment  under 
Washington.  I  do  not  believe  in  war  except  to  defend  one's 
country  and  home  and  in  this  case  I  was  willing  to  serve  as 
faithfully  as  I  could.  After  my  enlistment  expired  I  served 
again  in  the  army  in  my  regiment  under  Washington,  during 
the  siege  of  Yorktown,  but  did  not  again  enlist,  as  the  officers 
thought  the  war  would  soon  end. 

May  2,  1784. 

6I  saw  Jefferson  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  to-day  and  had 
a  very  pleasant  visit  with  him.  I  have  consented  to  go  to 
Illinois  on  his  mission  and  he  intends  helping  me  some,  but 
I  did  not  ask  nor  wish  it.  We  had  a  full  agreement  and 
understanding  as  to  all  terms  and  duties.  The  agreement 
is  strictly  private  between  us,  but  all  his  purposes  are  per 
fectly  honorable  and  praiseworthy. 

Dec.  28,  1785. 

Jefferson's  confidential  agent  gave  me  one  hundred  dol 
lars  of  his  funds  to  use  for  my  family,  if  need  be,  and  if  not 
to  go  to  good  causes,  and  I  will  go  to  Illinois  on  his  mission 
next  Spring  and  take  my  wife  and  children. 

Sept.  4,  1786. 

In  the  past  summer,  with  my  wife  and  children  I  arrived 
at  Kaskaskia,  Illinois,  and  we  are  now  living  in  the  Bottom 
settlement.  On  the  Ohio  river  my  boat  partly  turned  over 
and  we  lost  a  part  of  our  goods  and  our  son  Robert  came  near 
drowning. 

May  10,  1787. 

I  am  very  well  impressed  with  this  new  country,  but  we 
are  still  living  in  the  Bottom,  as  the  Indians  are  unsafe.  We 
prefer  living  on  the  high  lands  and  we  shall  get  us  a  place 
there  soon.  People  are  coming  into  this  new  country  in 
increasing  numbers. 


Documents  29 


New  Design,  111.     Feb.  26,  1794. 

My  wife  and  I  were  baptized  with  several  others  to-day 
in  Fountain  Creek  by  Rev.  Josiah  Dodge.  The  ice  had  to  be 
cut  and  removed  first. 

New  Design,  May  28,  1796. 

Yesterday  and  to-day,  my  neighbors  at  my  invitation, 
gathered  at  my  home  and  were  constituted  into  a  Baptist 
church,  by  Rev.  David  Badgley  and  Joseph  Chance. 

New  Design,  Jan.  4,  1797. 

We  settled  here  some  time  ago  and  are  well  pleased  with 
our  place.  It  is  more  healthy  than  the  Bottom  country.  A 
fine  sugar  grove  is  near  us  and  a  large  lake  with  fine  fish, 
and  soil  good,  but  the  Indians  are  not  yet  to  be  trusted.  We 
have  been  here  now  a  number  of  years  and  have  quite  a 
farm  in  cultivation  and  fairly  good  improvements. 

New  Design,  Jan.  6,  1798. 

I  have  just  returned  with  six  of  my  neighbors  from 
a  hunt  and  land  inspection  upon  what  is  called  Richland 
country  and  creek.  We  had  made  our  camp  near  that  creek 
before.  On  the  first  Sunday  morning  in  December  held 
religious  services  and  on  Monday  went  out  to  see  the  land. 
We  found  fine  prairie  lands  some  miles  north,  south  and  east 
and  some  timber  lands  along  the  water  streams  mostly. 
Game  is  plentiful  and  we  killed  several  deer  and  turkeys. 
It  is  a  fine  country. 

New  Design,  May  3,  1803. 

As  Thomas  Jefferson  predicted  they  would  do,  the 
extreme  southern  slave  advocates  are  making  their  influence 
felt  in  the  new  territory  for  the  introduction  of  slavery  and 
they  are  pressing  Gov.  William  Henry  Harrison  to  use  his 
power  and  influence  for  that  end.  Steps  must  soon  be  taken 
to  prevent  that  curse  from  being  fastened  on  our  people. 

New  Design,  May  4,  1805. 

At  our  last  meeting,  as  I  expected  he  would  do,  Gov. 
Harrison  asked  and  insisted  that  I  should  cast  my  influence 
for  the  introduction  of  slavery  here,  but  I  not  only  denied 
the  request,  but  I  informed  him  that  the  evil  attempt  would 
encounter  my  most  active  opposition  in  every  possible  and 
honorable  manner  that  my  mind  could  suggest  or  my  means 
accomplish. 


30  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

New  Design,  May  10,  1805. 

Knowing  President  Jefferson's  hostility  against  the 
introduction  of  slavery  he're  and  the  mission  he  sent  me  on  to 
oppose  it,  I  do  not  believe  the  pro-slavery  petitions  with 
which  Gov.  Harrison  and  his  council  are  pressing  Congress 
for  slavery  here  can  prevail  while  he  is  President,  as  he  is 
very  popular  with  Congress  and  will  find  means  to  over 
reach  the  evil  attempt  of  the  pro-slavery  power. 

Jan.  20th  1806. 

15As  Gov.  William  Henry  Harrison  and  his  legislative 
council  have  had  their  petitions  before  Congress  at  several 
sessions  asking  for  slavery  here,  I  sent  a  messenger  to 
Indiana  to  ask  the  churches  and  people  there  to  get  up  and 
sign  a  counter  petition  to  Congress  to  uphold  freedom  in  the 
territory  and  I  have  circulated  one  here  and  we  will  send  it  on 
to  that  body  at  next  session  or  as  soon  as  the  work  is  done. 

New  Design.     Sept.  10,  1806. 

19A  confidential  agent  of  Aaron  Burr  called  yesterday 
to  ask  my  aid  and  sympathy  in  Burr's  scheme  for  a  South 
western  Empire  with  Illinois  as  a  province  and  an  offer  to 
make  me  governor.  But  I  denounced  the  conspiracy  as 
high  treason  and  gave  him  a  few  hours  to  leave  the  territory 
on  pain  of  arrest. 

New  Design.     Jan  10,  1809  [1810]. 

20I  received  Jefferson's  confidential  message  on  Oct. 
10,  1808,  suggesting  a  division  of  the  churches  on  the  ques 
tion  of  slavery  and  the  organization  of  a  church  on  a  strictly 
anti-slavery  basis,  for  the  purpose  of  heading  a  movement 
to  finally  make  Illinois  a  free  State,  and  after  first  trying  in 
vain  for  some  months  to  bring  all  the  churches  over  to  such 
a  basis,  I  acted  on  Jefferson's  plan  and  Dec.  10,  1809,  the 
anti-slavery  element  formed  a  Baptist  church  at  Cantine 
creek,  on  an  anti-slavery  basis. 

New  Design.     Mar.  3,  1819. 

I  was  reared  in  the  Presbyterian  faith,  but  at  20  years  of 
age  I  embraced  Baptist  principles  and  after  settlement  in 
Illinois  I  was  baptized  into  that  faith  and  finally  became 
a  minister  of  the  gospel  of  that  church,  but  some  years  be 
fore  I  was  licensed  to  preach,  I  was  active  in  collecting  and 


Documents  3 1 


inducing  communities  to  organize  churches,  as  I  thought 
that  the  most  certain  plan  to  control  and  improve  the  new 
settlements,  and  I  also  hoped  to  employ  the  churches  as  a 
means  of  opposition  to  the  institution  of  slavery,  but  this 
only  became  possible  when  we  organized  a  leading  church 
on  a  strictly  anti-slavery  basis,  an  event  which  finally  was 
marked  with  great  success,  as  Jefferson  suggested  it  would 
be. 

New  Design.     Jan  10,  1820. 

My  six  sons  all  are  naturally  industrious  and  they  all 
enjoy  the  sports.  Robert  and  Josiah  excel  in  fishing,  Moses 
in  hunting,  William  in  boating  and  swimming  and  James  and 
Joseph  in  running  and  jumping.  Either  one  of  them  can 
jump  over  a  line  held  at  his  own  height,  a  little  over  six  feet. 

New  Design.     Jan.  12,  1820. 

A  full  account  of  my  Indian  fights  will  be  found  among 
my  papers. 

New  Design.     Dec.  10,  1820. 

Looking  back  at  this  time,  1820,  to  1809,  when  we  or 
ganized  the  Canteen  creek  Baptist  Church  on  a  strictly 
anti-slavery  basis  as  Jefferson  had  suggested  as  a  [center] 
from  which  the  anti-slavery  movement  to  finally  save  the 
State  to  freedom  could  be  directed,  it  is  now  clear  that  the 
move  was  a  wise  one  as  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  it  more  than 
anything  else  was  what  made  Illinois  a  free  State. 

New  Design,  111.     Jan.  4,  1821. 

Among  my  papers  my  family  will  find  a  full  and  connected 
statement  as  to  all  the  churches  I  have  caused  to  be  formed 
since  my  settlement  in  Illinois. 


There  were  many  of  our  family  notes  which  were  faded 
out  and  Rev.  J.  M.  Peck  retained  some  when  he  made 
father's  history  and  many  were  misplaced  by  other  friends, 
but  we  have  had  all  copied  [that]  are  now  in  our  possession 
which  are  of  interest.  REV.  JAMES  LEMEN,  JR., 

(Son  of  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.). 

Ridge  Prairie,  111.     June  4,  1867. 

My  father's  account  of  his  Indian  fights  and  statement 
of  all  the  churches  he  caused  to  be  founded  in  Illinois,  above 


32  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

mentioned,  were  loaned  to  Rev.  John  M.  Peck  a  short  time 
before  his  death  and  have  not  been  returned,  but  the  in 
formation  contained  has  already  been  published  except  a 
few  confidential  facts  as  to  his  relations  with  Jefferson  in  the 
formation  of  the  Canteen  Creek  Baptist  Ch.,  now  the 
Bethel  Baptist  Church.  REV.  JAMES  LEMEN,  JR. 

(Son  of  James  Lemen,  Sr.) 


II.     PECK'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  JEFFERSON-LEMEN 
COMPACT 

Rock  Spring,  111.,  June  4,  1851. 

The  history  of  the  confidential  relation  of  Rev.  James 
Lemen,  Senior,  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  Lemen's  mission 
under  him,  which  I  have  prepared  for  his  son,  Rev.  James 
Lemen,  Junior,  at  his  request  from  the  family  notes  and  diaries. 

J.  M.  PECK, 
Per  A.  M.  W. 

CHAPTER  I. 

The  leading  purpose  of  Thomas  Jefferson  in  selecting 
James  Lemen,  of  Virginia,  afterwards  James  Lemen,  Senior, 
to  go  to  Illinois  as  his  agent,  was  no  doubt  prompted  by 
his  great  affection  for  Mr.  Lemen  and  his  impression  that 
a  young  man  of  such  aptitude  as  a  natural  leader  would  soon 
impress  himself  on  the  community,  and  as  the  advantages  in 
the  territory  were  soon  to  be  great,  Jefferson  was  desirous 
to  send  him  out,  and  with  the  help  of  a  few  friends  he  pro 
vided  a  small  fund  to  give  him,  and  also  his  friend  who  was 
going  to  Indiana  on  a  like  mission,  to  be  used  by  their 
families  if  need  be,  and  if  not  to  go  to  good  causes.  There 
was  also  another  motive  with  Jefferson;  he  looked  forward 
to  a  great  pro-slavery  contest  to  finally  try  to  make  Illinois 
and  Indiana  slave  states,  and  as  Mr.  Lemen  was  a  natural 
born  anti-slavery  leader  and  had  proved  himself  such  in 
Virginia  by  inducing  scores  of  masters  to  free  their  slaves 
through  his  prevailing  kindness  of  manner  and  Christian 
arguments,  he  was  just  Jefferson's  ideal  of  a  man  who  could 
safely  be  trusted  with  his  anti-slavery  mission  in  Illinois, 
and  this  was  an  important  factor  in  his  appointment. 

The  last  meeting  between  Mr.  Lemen  and  Jefferson  was 
at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  on  May  2,  1784,  a  short  time  before 


Documents  33 


he  sailed  as  envoy  to  France,  and  all  the  terms  between  them 
were  fully  agreed  upon,  and  on  Dec.  28,  1785,  Jefferson's 
confidential  agent  gave  Mr.  Lemen  one  hundred  dollars  of 
his  funds,  and  in  the  summer  of  1786  with  his  wife  and 
children  he  removed  and  settled  in  Illinois,  at  New  Design, 
in  wrhat  is  now  Monroe  County.  A  few  years  after  his  settle 
ment  in  Illinois  Mr.  Lemen  was  baptized  into  the  Baptist 
church,  and  he  finally  became  a  minister  of  the  people  of 
that  faith.  He  eventually  became  a  great  organizer  of 
churches  and  by  that  fact,  reinforced  by  his  other  wonderful 
traits  as  a  natural  leader,  he  fully  realized  Jefferson's  fondest 
dreams  and  became  a  noted  leader. 

In  1789  Jefferson  returned  from  his  mission  to  France 
and  his  first  thought  was  of  Mr.  Lemen,  his  friend  in  Illinois, 
and  he  lost  no  time  in  sending  him  a  message  of  love  and 
confidence  by  a  friend  who  was  then  coming  to  the  West. 
5After  Jefferson  became  President  of  the  United  States  he 
retained  all  of  his  early  affection  for  Mr.  Lemen,  and  when 
S.  H.  Biggs,  a  resident  of  Illinois,  who  was  in  Viriginia  on 
business  and  who  was  a  warm  friend  of  both  Jefferson  and 
Mr.  Lemen,  called  on  him  in  1808,  when  President,  he  in 
quired  after  him  with  all  the  fondness  of  a  father,  and  when 
told  of  Mr.  Lemen's  purpose  to  soon  organize  a  new  church 
on  a  strictly  anti-slavery  basis  Jefferson  sent  him  a  message 
to  proceed  at  once  to  form  the  new  church  and  he  sent  it 
a  twenty-dollar  contribution.  Acting  on  Jefferson's  sug 
gestion,  Mr.  Lemen  promptly  took  the  preliminary  steps 
for  the  final  formation  of  the  new  church  and  when  con 
stituted  it  was  called  the  Baptist  Church  of  Canteen  Creek 
and  Jefferson's  contribution,  with  other  funds,  were  given 
to  it.  This  church  is  now  called  the  Bethel  Baptist  Church, 
and  it  has  a  very  interesting  history. 

But  in  view  of  the  facts  and  circumstances  the  church 
might  properly  have  been  called  the  "Thomas  Jefferson 
Church,"  and  what  volumes  these  facts  speak  for  the 
beneficent  and  marvelous  influence  which  Mr.  Lemen  had 
over  Jefferson,  who  was  a  reputed  unbeliever.  The  great 
love  he  had  for  James  Lemen  not  only  induced  him  to  tol 
erate  his  churches  but  he  became  an  active  adviser  for  their 
multiplication. 

30The  original  agreement  between  Jefferson  and  Mr. 
Lemen  was  strictly  confidential;  on  the  part  of  Jefferson, 
because,  had  it  been  known,  his  opponents  would  have 


34 The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact        

said  he  sent  paid  emissaries  to  Illinois  and  Indiana  to 
shape  matters  to  his  own  interests,  and  the  extreme  South 
might  have  opposed  his  future  preferment,  if  it  were  known 
that  he  had  made  an  anti-slavery  pact  with  his  territorial 
agents;  and  it  was  secret  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Lemen  because 
he  never  wished  Jefferson  to  give  him  any  help  and  his 
singularly  independent  nature  made  him  feel  that  he  would 
enjoy  a  greater  liberty  of  action,  or  feeling  at  least,  if  it 
were  never  known  that  his  plans  and  purposes  to  some  extent 
were  dictated  and  controlled  by  another,  not  even  by  his 
great  and  good  friend  Jefferson;  so  the  agreement  between 
them  was  strictly  private.  30And  there  was  another  cir 
cumstance  which  finally  determined  Mr.  Lemen  to  always 
preserve  the  secrecy,  and  that  was  that  some  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son's  opponents  shortly  before  Mr.  Lemen's  death  informed 
him  that  he  had  become  an  absolute  unbeliever,  and  this  so 
impressed  his  mind  that  he  wept  bitterly  for  fear,  if  the  fact 
should  ever  be  known  that  he  had  an  agreement  with  Jeffer 
son,  that  they  would  say  that  he  was  in  alliance  with  an  un 
believer  in  the  great  life  work  he  had  performed,  and  he 
exacted  a  promise  from  his  sons,  his  brother-in-law,  Rev. 
Benjamin  Ogle,  and  Mr.  Biggs,  the  only  persons  who  then 
knew  of  the  agreement,  that  they  would  never  divulge  it 
during  his  lifetime,  a  pledge  they  all  religiously  kept,  and  in 
later  years  they  told  no  one  but  the  writer  and  a  few  other 
trusted  friends  who  have  not,  and  never  will,  betray  them. 
But  the  writer  advised  them  to  carefully  preserve  all  the 
facts  and  histories  we  are  now  writing  and  to  tell  some  of 
their  families  and  let  them  publish  them  at  some  future  time, 
as  much  of  the  information  is  of  public  interest. 

As  to  Jefferson's  being  an  absolute  unbeliever,  his  critics 
were  mistaken.  He  held  to  the  doctrine  that  the  mind  and 
the  reason  are  the  only  guides  we  have  to  judge  of  the 
authenticity  and  credibility  of  all  things,  natural  and  divine, 
and  this  appears  to  have  been  the  chief  basis  on  which  Jef 
ferson's  critics  based  their  charges  against  him.  But  while 
these  harsh  criticisms  in  some  measure  misled  Mr.  Lemen 
he  never  lost  his  great  love  for  Jefferson  and  to  the  latest 
day  of  his  life  he  always  mentioned  his  name  with  tenderness 
and  affection.  I  had  hoped  to  complete  this  history  in  one 
chapter,  but  there  appear  to  be  notes  and  materials  enough 
for  another.  By  oversight  the  notes  of  Mr.  Lemen's  war 
record  were  not  given  me,  but  he  honorably  served  an  enlist- 


Documents  35 


ment  of  two  years  under  Washington,  and  returned  to  his 
regiment  at  the  siege  of  Yorktown  and  served  until  the  sur 
render  of  Cornwallis,  but  did  not  re-enlist. 

CHAPTER   II. 

At  their  last  meeting  at  Annapolis,  Maryland,  on  May 
2,  1784,  when  the  final  terms  in  their  agreement  as  to  Mr. 
Lemen's  mission  in  Illinois  were  made,  both  he  and  Jefferson 
agreed  that  sooner  or  later,  there  would  be  a  great  contest 
to  try  to  fasten  slavery  on  the  Northwestern  Territory,  and 
this  prophesy  was  fully  verified  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Con 
gress,  at  a  later  period,  passed  the  Ordinance  of  1787  forever 
forbidding  slavery;  two  contests  arose  in  Illinois,  the  first 
to  confirm  the  territory  and  the  second  to  confirm  the  state 
to  freedom. 

17From  1803  for  several  successive  congresses  Gen. 
William  Henry  Harrison,  then  governor  of  the  Northwestern 
Territory,  with  his  legislative  council  petitioned  that  body 
to  repeal  the  anti-slavery  clause  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787 
and  to  establish  slavery  in  the  territory,  but  without  avail, 
and  finally  recognizing  that  the  influence  of  Rev.  James 
Lemen,  Sr.,  was  paramount  with  the  people  of  Illinois,  he 
made  persistent  overtures  for  his  approval  of  his  pro-slavery 
petitions,  but  he  declined  to  act  and  promptly  sent  a  mes 
senger  to  Indiana,  paying  him  thirty  dollars  of  the  Jefferson 
fund  given  him  in  Virginia  to  have  the  church  and  people 
there  sign  a  counter  petition,  meanwhile  circulating  one  in 
Illinois  among  the  Baptists  and  others;  and  at  the  next 
session  of  Congress  Gen.  Harrison's  pro-slavery  petitions  for 
the  first  time  encountered  the  anti-slavery  petitions  of  the 
Baptist  people  and  others,  and  the  senate,  before  which  the 
matter  went  at  that  time,  voted  to  sustain  the  anti-slavery 
petitions  and  against  the  repeal  of  the  anti-slavery  clause  in 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  and  for  the  time  the  contest  ended. 

21The  next  anti-slavery  contest  was  in  the  narrower 
limits  of  the  territory  of  Illinois,  and  it  began  with  the  events 
which  called  the  Bethel  Baptist  Church  into  existence. 
When  Mr.  Lemen  received  President  Jefferson's  message  in 
1808  to  proceed  at  once  to  organize  the  next  church  on  an 
anti-slavery  basis  and  make  it  the  center  from  which  the 
anti-slavery  forces  should  act  to  finally  make  Illinois  a  free 
state,  he  decided  to  act  on  it;  but  as  he  knew  it  would  create 


36  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

a  division  in  the  churches  and  association,  to  disarm  criticism 
he  labored  several  months  to  bring  them  over  to  the  anti- 
slavery  cause,  but  finding  that  impossible  he  adopted  Jef 
ferson's  advice  and  prepared  to  open  the  contest.  The 
first  act  was  on  July  8,  1809,  in  regular  session  of  the  Richland 
Creek  Baptist  Church,  where  the  people  had  assembled  from 
all  quarters  to  see  the  opening  of  the  anti-slavery  contest,  when 
Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  arose  and  in  a  firm  but  friendly 
Christian  spirit  declared  it  would  be  better  for  both  sides  to 
separate,  as  the  contest  for  and  against  slavery  must  now 
open  and  not  close  until  Illinois  should  become  a  state. 
A  division  of  both  the  association  and  the  churches  followed, 
but  finally  at  a  great  meeting  at  the  Richland  Creek  Baptist 
Church  in  a  peaceful  and  Christian  manner,  as  being  the 
better  policy  for  both  sides,  separation  was  adopted  by 
unanimous  vote  and  a  number  of  members  withdrew,  and  on 
Dec.  10,  1809,  they  formed  the  "Baptist  Church  at  Canteen 
Creek,"  (now  Bethel  Baptist  Church).  Their  articles  of 
faith  were  brief.  They  simply  declared  the  Bible  to  be 
the  pillar  of  their  faith,  and  proclaimed  their  good  will 
for  the  brotherhood  of  humanity  by  declaring  their  church 
to  be  "The  Baptist  Church  of  Christ,  Friends  to  Humanity, 
denying  union  and  communion  with  all  persons  holding 
the  doctrine  of  perpetual,  involuntary,  hereditary  slavery." 
23The  church,  properly  speaking,  never  entered  politics, 
but  presently,  when  it  became  strong,  the  members  all  formed 
what  they  called  "The  Illinois  Anti-Slavery  League,"  and 
it  was  this  body  that  conducted  the  anti-slavery  contest. 
It  always  kept  one  of  its  members  and  several  of  its  friends 
in  the  Territorial  Legislature,  and  five  years  before  the  con 
stitutional  election  in  1818  it  had  fifty  resident  agents  — 
men  of  like  sympathies  —  in  the  several  settlements  through 
out  the  territory  quietly  at  work,  and  the  masterly  manner 
in  which  they  did  their  duty  was  shown  by  a  poll  which 
they  made  of  the  voters  some  few  weeks  before  the  election, 
which,  on  their  side  only  varied  a  few  votes  from  the  official 
count  after  the  election.  17With  people  familiar  with  all  the 
circumstances  there  is  no  divergence  of  views  but  that  the 
organization  of  the  Bethel  Church  and  its  masterly  anti- 
slavery  contest  saved  Illinois  to  freedom;  but  much  of  the 
credit  of  the  freedom  of  Illinois,  as  well  as  for  the  balance 
of  the  territory,  was  due  to  Thomas  Jefferson's  faithful  and 
efficient  aid.  True  to  his  promise  to  Mr.  Lemen  that  slavery 


Documents  37 


should  never  prevail  in  the  Northwestern  Territory  or  any 
part  of  it,  he  quietly  directed  his  leading  confidential  friends 
in  Congress  to  steadily  defeat  Gen.  Harrison's  pro-slavery 
petitions  for  the  repeal  of  the  anti-slavery  clause  in  the 
Ordinance  of  1787,  and  his  friendly  aid  to  Rev.  James 
Lemen,  Sr.,  and  friends  made  the  anti-slavery  contest  of 
Bethel  Church  a  success  in  saving  the  state  to  freedom. 

In  the  preparation  of  this  history,  to  insure  perfect 
reliability  and  a  well-connected  statement,  I  have  examined, 
selected,  and  read  the  numerous  family  notes  myself,  dicta 
ting,  while  my  secretary  has  done  the  writing,  and  after  all 
was  completed  we  made  another  critical  comparison  with 
all  the  notes  to  insure  perfect  accuracy  and  trustworthiness. 

I  have  had  one  copy  prepared  for  Rev.  James  Lemen, 
Jr.,  and  one  for  myself.  I  should  have  added  that  of  the 
one  hundred  dollars  of  the  Jefferson  funds  given  him  Rev. 
James  Lemen,  Sr.,  used  none  for  his  family,  but  it  was  all 
used  for  other  good  causes,  as  it  was  not  Mr.  Lemen's  in 
tention  to  appropriate  any  of  it  for  his  own  uses  when  he 
accepted  it  from  Jefferson's  confidential  agent  in  Virginia. 

III.    "HOW  ILLINOIS  GOT  CHICAGO" 

(Communication  from  Joseph   B.  Lemen,   under  head  of  "Voice  of  the 
People,"  in  The  Chicago  Tribune  some  time  in  December,  1908.) 

O'Fallon,  111.,  Dec.  21,  1908. 

Editor  of  the  Tribune: — In  October,  1817,  the  Rev. 
James  Lemen,  Sr.,  had  a  government  surveyor  make  a  map 
showing  how  the  boundary  of  Illinois  could  be  extended 
northward  so  as  to  give  a  growing  state  more  territory 
and  a  better  shape  and  include  the  watercourses  by  which 
Lake  Michigan  might  be  connected  with  the  Mississippi 
river.  With  these  advantages  marked  in  the  margin  of 
the  map,  he  gave  his  plan  and  map  to  Nathaniel  Pope,  our 
territorial  delegate  in  congress,  to  secure  the  adoption  of  the 
plan  by  that  body,  which  he  did. 

The  facts  were  noted  in  the  Rev.  J.  M.  Peck's  pioneer 
papers  and  others,  and  in  commenting  on  them  some  of  our 
newspapers  have  recently  charged  Nathaniel  Pope  with 
carelessness  in  not  publishing  Mr.  Lemen's  share  in  the 
matter,  but  unjustly.  Mr.  Lemen  and  Mr.  Pope  were 
ardent  friends,  and  as  the  former  was  a  preacher  and  desired 
no  office,  and  he  wished  and  sought  for  no  private  pre- 


38 The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

ferment  and  promotion,  he  expressly  declared  that  as  Mr. 
Pope  had  carried  the  measure  through  Congress  with  such 
splendid  skill  he  preferred  that  he  should  have  the  credit 
and  not  mention  where  he  got  the  map  and  plan. 

Rev.  Benjamin  Ogle,  Mr.  Lemen's  brother-in-law,  and 
others  mentioned  this  fact  in  some  of  their  papers  and  notes. 
The  omission  was  no  fault  of  Mr.  Pope's  and  was  contrary 
to  his  wish. 

The  present  site  of  Chicago  was  included  in  the  territory 
added,  and  that  is  how  Illinois  got  Chicago.  PIONEER. 


IV.    ADDRESS  TO  THE  FRIENDS  OF    FREEDOM 

(From  The  Illinois  Intelligencer,  August  5,  1818.) 

The  undersigned,  happening  to  meet  at  the  St.  Clair 
Circuit  Court,  have  united  in  submitting  the  following  Ad 
dress  to  the  Friends  of  Freedom  in  the  State  of  Illinois. 

Feeling  it  a  duty  in  those  who  are  sincere  in  their  op 
position  to  the  toleration  of  slavery  in  this  territory  to  use 
all  fair  and  laudable  means  to  effect  that  object,  we  there 
fore  beg  leave  to  present  to  our  fellow-citizens  at  large  the 
sentiments  which  prevail  in  this  section  of  our  country  on 
that  subject.  In  the  counties  of  Madison  and  St.  Clair, 
the  most  populous  counties  in  the  territory,  a  sentiment 
approaching  unanimity  seems  to  prevail  against  it.  In 
the  counties  of  Bond,  Washington,  and  Monroe  a  similar 
sentiment  also  prevails.  We  are  informed  that  strong 
exertions  will  be  made  in  the  convention  to  give  sanction  to 
that  deplorable  evil  in  our  state;  and  lest  such  should  be  the 
result  at  too  late  a  period  for  anything  like  concert  to  take 
place  among  the  friends  of  freedom  in  trying  to  defeat  it, 
we  therefore  earnestly  solicit  all  true  friends  to  freedom 
in  every  section  of  the  territory  to  unite  in  opposing  it, 
both  by  the  election  of  a  Delegate  to  Congress  who  will 
oppose  it  and  by  forming  meetings  and  preparing  remon 
strances  against  it.  Indeed,  so  important  is  this  question 
considered  that  no  exertions  of  a  fair  character  should  be 
omitted  to  defeat  the  plan  of  those  who  wish  either  a  tem 
porary  or  unlimited  slavery.  Let  us  also  select  men  to  the 
Legislature  who  will  unite  in  remonstrating  to  the  general 
government  against  ratifying  such  a  constitution.  At  a 
crisis  like  this  thinking  will  not  do,  acting  is  necessary. 


Documents  39 


From  St.  Clair  county  —  Risdon  Moore,  Benjamin 
Watts,  Jacob  Ogle,  Joshua  Oglesby,  William  Scott,  Sr., 
William  Biggs,  Geo.  Blair,  Charles  R.  Matheny,  James 
Garretson,  and  34William  Kinney. 

From  Madison  County  —  Wm.  B.  Whiteside. 

From  Monroe  County  —  James  Lemen,  Sr. 

From  Washington  —  Wm.  H.  Bradsby. 


V.    RECOLLECTIONS  OF  A  CENTENNARIAN 

By  DR.  WILLIAMSON  F.  BOYAKIN,  Blue  Rapids,  Kansas 

(1807-1907) 
(The  Standard,  Chicago,  November  9,  1907.) 

The  Lemen  family  was  of  Irish  [Scotch]  descent.  They 
were  friends  and  associates  of  Thomas  Jefferson.  It  was 
through  his  influence  that  they  migrated  West.  When  the 
Lemen  family  arrived  at  what  they  designated  as  New 
Design,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  present  town  of  Waterloo, 
in  Monroe  county,  twenty-five  miles  southeast  of  the  city 
of  St.  Louis,  Illinois  was  a  portion  of  the  state  of  Virginia. 
[Ceded  to  U.  S.  two  years  previous.] 

Thomas  Jefferson  gave  them  a  kind  of  carte  blanche  for 
all  the  then  unoccupied  territory  of  Virginia,  and  gave  them 
$30  in  gold  to  be  paid  to  the  man  who  should  build  the  first 
meeting  house  on  the  western  frontier.32  This  rudely-con 
structed  house  of  worship  was  built  on  a  little  creek  named 
Canteen  [Quentin],  just  a  mile  or  two  south  of  what  is  now 
called  Collinsville,  Madison  county,  Illinois. 

In  the  mountains  of  Virginia  there  lived  a  Baptist  min 
ister  by  the  name  of  Torrence.  This  Torrence,  at  an  As 
sociation  in  Virginia,  introduced  a  resolution  against  slavery. 
In  a  speech  in  favor  of  the  resolution  he  said,  "All  friends  of 
humanity  should  support  the  resolution."  The  elder  James 
Lemen  being  present  voted  for  it  and  adopted  it  for  his  motto, 
inscribed  it  on  a  rude  flag,  and  planted  it  on  the  rudely-con 
structed  flatboat  on  which  the  family  floated  down  the 
Ohio  river,  in  the  summer  of  1790  [1786],  to  the  New  Design 
location.33 

The  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  churches  and 
associations  that  subsequently  grew  up  in  Illinois  [under  the 
Lemen  influence]  was  the  name  "The  Baptized  Church  of 
Christ,  Friends  to  Humanity." 


40  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

One  of  these  Lemen  brothers,  Joseph,  married  a  Kinney, 
sister  to  him  who  was  afterwards  governor  [lieutant  governor] 
of  the  state.  This  Kinney  was  also  a  Baptist  preacher,  a 
Kentuckian,  and  a  pro-slavery  man.34  When  the  canvass 
opened  in  1816,  17,  and  18  to  organize  Illinois  into  a  state, 
the  Lemens  and  the  Kinneys  were  leaders  in  the  canvass. 
The  canvass  was  strong,  long,  bitter.  The  Friends  to 
Humanity  party  won.  The  Lemen  brothers  made  Illinois 
what  it  is,  a  free  state. 

The  Lemens  were  personally  fine  specimens  of  the  genus 
homo  —  tall,  straight,  large,  handsome  men  —  magnetic, 
emotional,  fine  speakers.  James  Lemen  [Junior]  was  con 
sidered  the  most  eloquent  speaker  of  the  day  of  the  Baptist 
people.  Our  present  educated  preachers  have  lost  the  hold 
they  should  have  upon  the  age  in  the  cultivation  of  the  in 
tellectual  instead  of  the  emotional.  Religion  is  the  motive 
power  in  the  intellectual  guidance  of  humanity.  These 
Lemens  were  well  balanced  in  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect 
and  the  control  of  the  emotions.  They  were  well  educated 
for  their  day,  self-educated,  great  lovers  of  poetry,  hymnal 
poetry,  having  no  taste  for  the  religious  debates  now  so 
prevalent  in  some  localities.  They  attended  no  college 
commencements  [?].  James  Lemen,  however,  at  whose 
grave  the  monument  is  to  be  erected,  was  for  fourteen  con 
secutive  years  in  the  Senate  of  the  State  Legislature,  and 
would  have  been  elected  United  States  senator,  but  he  would 
not  accept  the  position  when  offered.  [This  was  James,  Jr., 
not  his  father.] 

Personally  of  fine  taste,  always  well  and  even  elegantly 
dressed,  they  rode  fine  horses,  owned  fine  farms,  well  cul 
tivated.  They  lived  in  rich,  elegant  style  [?].  They  were 
brimful  and  overflowing  with  spontaneous  hospitality. 
All  were  married,  with  several  sisters,  and  were  blessed  with 
large  families.  Almost  all  of  them,  parents  and  descendants, 
have  passed  away.  Old  Bethel,  the  church  house,  and  the 
graveyard,  in  sight  of  the  old  mound,  are  yet  there. 

NOTE. — Dr.  Boyakin  was  a  physician,  Baptist  minister, 
and  newspaper  editor  for  many  years  in  Illinois.  He  de 
livered  the  G.  A.  R.  address  at  Blue  Rapids,  Kansas,  on 
his  one  hundredth  birthday.  He  has  confused  some  things 
in  these  "recollections,"  especially  the  story  concerning  the 
origin  of  the  name  "Friends  to  Humanity,"  but  for  his 
years  his  statements  are  unusually  in  accord  with  the  facts. 


Documents  41 


VI.  IN   MEMORY   OF   REV.   JAMES   LEMEN,    SR. 

BY  A  WELL-WISHER 
(The  Standard,  Chicago,  November  16,  1907) 

When  James  Lemen's  early  anti-slavery  Baptist  churches 
went  over  to  the  cause  of  slavery,  it  looked  as  if  all  were  lost 
and  his  anti-slavery  mission  in  Illinois  had  failed.  At  that 
crisis  Mr.  Lemen  could  have  formed  another  sect,  but  in  his 
splendid  loyalty  to  the  Baptist  cause  he  simply  formed  an 
other  Baptist  church  on  the  broader,  higher  grounds  for 
both  God  and  humanity,  and  on  this  high  plane  he  unfurled 
the  banner  of  freedom.  In  God's  good  time  the  churches 
and  state  and  nation  came  up  to  that  grand  level  of  right, 
light,  and  progress. 

Of  James  Lemen's  sons,  under  his  training,  Robert  was  an 
eminent  Baptist  layman,  and  Joseph,  James,  Moses,  and 
Josiah  were  able  Baptist  preachers.  [William,  the  "way 
ward"  son,  also  became  a  useful  minister  in  his  later  years.] 
Altogether  they  were  as  faithful  a  band  of  men  as  ever  stood 
for  any  cause.  This  is  the  rating  which  history  places 
upon  them.  The  country  owes  James  Lemen  another  debt 
of  gratitude  for  his  services  to  history.  He  and  his  sons 
were  the  only  family  that  ever  kept  a  written  and  authentic 
set  of  notes  of  early  Illinois;  and  the  early  historians,  Ford, 
Reynolds,  and  Peck,  drew  many  of  their  facts  from  that 
source.  These  notes  embraced  the  only  correct  histories  of 
both  the  early  Methodist  and  the  early  Baptist  churches  in 
Illinois  and  much  other  early  matter.35 

NOTE. — This  communication  was  probably  from  Dr. 
W.  F.  Boyakin. 

VII.  STATEMENT  REGARDING  JOSEPH  B.  LEMEN 

"Joseph  B.  Lemen  has  written  editorially  for  The 
New  York  Sun,  The  New  York  Tribune,  The  Chicago  Tribune, 
and  The  Belleville  Advocate. 

"During  the  McKinley  campaign  of  1896  he  wrote 
editorials  from  the  farmers'  standpoint  for  a  number  of  the 
metropolitan  newspapers  of  the  country  at  the  personal 
request  of  Mark  Hanna. 

"He  also  wrote  editorials  for  the  metropolitan  newspapers 
during  the  first  Lincoln  campaign." 

—Editor,  Belleville  Advocate. 
December,  1912. 


42  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

VIII.     HISTORIC  LETTER  OF  REV.  J.  M.  PECK  ON 
THE  OLD   LEMEN   FAMILY   NOTES 

(From  Belleville  Advocate,  January,  1908) 
(Clipping  in  I.B.H.C.,  Kll) 

To  the  Editor  of  the  Belleville  Advocate: 

We  herewith  send  the  Advocate  a  copy  of  a  letter  of 
the  eminent  historian  and  great  Baptist  divine,  the  late 
Rev.  J.  M.  Peck,  to  his  old  ministerial  associate,  the  late 
Rev.  James  Lemen,  concerning  the  anti-slavery  labors  of 
his  father,  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  and  also  his  views  as  to 
the  old  Lemen  family  notes,  which  will  perhaps  interest 
your  readers.  It  seems  quite  appropriate  for  the  Advocate 
to  print  these  old  pioneer  matters,  as  it  is  one  of  the  old  pio 
neer  landmarks.  Rev.  James  Lemen  took  the  paper  when 
it  started,  under  its  first  name,  and  it  has  come  to  his  family 
or  family  members  at  his  old  home  ever  since. 

By  order  of  the  Family. 
[JOSEPH  B.  LEMEN.] 

REV.  JAMES  LEMEN,  SR.,  AND  HIS  ANTI-SLAVERY 

LABORS 
Rev.  James  Lemen, 

Ridge  Prairie,  Illinois 

Dear  Brother:  At  my  recent  very  enjovable  visit  at  your 
house  you  made  two  important  requests,  which  I  will  now 
answer.  The  first  was  as  to  my  estimate  or  judgment  of 
your  father's  anti-slavery  labors,  and  the  second  was  as  to 
what  disposition  you  had  better  make  of  your  vast  stock  of 
old  family  notes  and  papers.  Considering  your  questions 
in  the  order  named,  I  will  write  this  letter,  or  more  properly, 
article,  under  the  above  heading  of  "Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr., 
and  His  Anti-Slavery  Labors,"  as  the  first  question  is  the 
most  important,  and  then  in  conclusion  I  will  notice  the 
second. 

In  considering  your  father's  anti-slavery  labors,  I  will 
proceed  upon  the  facts  and  evidence  obtained  outside  your 
old  family  notes,  as  it  might  be  presumed  that  the  trend  of 
the  notes  on  that  matter  would  be  partial.  Not  that  the 
facts  I  would  use  are  not  found  in  your  family  notes,  for  they 
appear  to  cover  about  every  event  in  our  early  state  and 
church  history;  but  that  I  would  look  for  the  facts  elsewhere 
to  prove  the  matter,  and  indeed  I  can  draw  largely  from  mv 


Documents  43 


own  knowledge  of  the  facts  upon  which  your  father's  success 
as  an  anti  slavery  leader  rested.  Not  only  from  my  own 
personal  observation,  but  scores  of  the  old  pioneers,  your 
father's  followers  and  helpers,  have  given  me  facts  that  fully 
establish  the  claim  that  he  was  the  chief  leader  that  saved 
Illinois  to  freedom.  Not  only  the  state,  but  on  a  wider 
basis  the  evidence  is  very  strong  that  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr., 
largely  shared  in  saving  the  Northwestern  Territory  for  free 
states.  This  was  the  estimate  that  General  [Governor] 
William  Henry  Harrison  placed  on  his  labors  in  his  letter  to 
Captain  Joseph  Ogle  after  his  term  of  the  governorship 
had  expired.  17In  his  letter  to  Captain  Ogle  he  said  that, 
though  he  and  Mr.  Lemen  were  ardent  friends,  he  [Lemen] 
set  his  iron  will  against  slavery  here  and  indirectly  made 
his  influence  felt  so  strongly  at  Washington  and  before 
Congress,  that  all  efforts  to  suspend  the  anti-slavery  clause 
in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  failed. 

But  James  Lemen  was  not  only  a  factor  which  saved  the 
anti-slavery  clause  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787,  but  there  is  no 
doubt,  after  putting  all  the  facts  together,  .  .  .  that 
his  anti-slavery  mission  to  the  Northwestern  Territory  was 
inspired  by  the  same  cause  which  finally  placed  the  anti- 
slavery  clause  in  the  Ordinance,  and  that  Lemen's  mission 
and  that  clause  were  closely  connected.  Douglas,  Trumbull, 
and  Lincoln  thought  so,  and  every  other  capable  person  who 
had  [been]  or  has  been  made  familiar  with  the  facts. 

Many  of  the  old  pioneers  to  whom  the  facts  were  known 
have  informed  me  that  all  the  statements  as  to  Rev.  James 
Lemen's  anti-slavery  teaching  and  preaching  and  forming 
his  anti-slavery  churches,  and  conducting  the  anti-slavery 
contest,  and  sending  a  paid  agent  to  Indiana  to  assist  the 
anti-slavery  cause,  were  all  true  in  every  particular;  and  so 
the  evidence  outside  and  independently  of  that  in  the  Lemen 
family  notes  is  conclusive  that  Mr.  Lemen  created  and 
organized  the  forces  which  finally  confirmed  Illinois,  if  not 
the  Northwestern  Territory,  to  freedom.  But  there  was 
just  one  fact  that  made  it  possible  for  the  old  pioneer  leader 
practically  single  handed  and  alone  to  accomplish  such 
results;  and  that  was  because  President  Jefferson's  great 
power  was  behind  him,  and  through  his  secret  influence 
Congress  worked  for  the  very  purpose  that  Jefferson,  more 
than  twenty  years  before,  had  sent  Lemen  to  Illinois,  or  the 
Northwestern  Territory,  to  secure,  namely,  the  freedom  of  the 


44 The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

new  country.  The  claim  that  Mr.  Lemen  encompassed 
these  great  results  would,  of  course,  be  ridiculous  were  it 
not  known  that  the  power  of  the  government  through  Jef 
ferson  stood  behind  him.  Hence  Douglas,  Trumbull,  and 
others  are  correct,  and  I  quite  agree  with  them,  that  when 
you  publish  the  old  family  notes  on  the  matter,  if,  for  reasons 
you  state,  you  do  not  wish  to  publish  Jefferson's  letters  to 
your  father  which  concern  the  subject,  it  will  be  sufficient 
just  to  say  he  acted  by  and  under  his  advice  and  aid,  and 
people  will  accept  it,  as  it  is  self-evident,  because  it  is  pre 
posterous  to  hold  that  Mr.  Lemen  could  have  accomplished 
such  results  without  some  great  power  behind  him.  In 
conclusion,  it  is  my  judgment  that  your  father's  anti-slavery 
labors  were  the  chief  factor  leading  up  to  the  free  state 
constitution  for  Illinois. 

Now  as  to  your  old  family  notes.  They  are  valuable. 
In  their  respective  fields,  they  embrace  by  far  the  most 
trustworthy  history  in  our  state.  They  ought  to  be  pre 
served,  but  your  generous  nature  will  not  permit  you  to 
say  no;  and  your  friends,  as  you  say,  are  carrying  them  off, 
and  they  will  all  be  lost,  and  presently  the  vast  and  priceless 
collection  will  have  disappeared,  which  will  be  an  unspeak 
able  loss.  Like  your  friends,  Dr.  B.  F.  Edwards  and  J. 
M.  Smith,  I  would  advise  you  to  make  copies  of  all  to  keep 
for  use,  and  then  give  Smith  the  old  collection  to  keep  and 
hold  in  St.  Louis  in  his  safe,  and  leave  them  there  for  good. 
This  will  save  you  an  infinite  amount  of  worry,  as  people 
will  not  trouble  you  to  see  the  mere  copies.  It  would  be  a 
good  disposition  to  make  of  them,  and  thus  bury  that  dan 
gerous  element  in  many  of  the  old  letters  bearing  on  the  anti- 
slavery  contest  of  1818.  With  some  of  those  interested  in 
that  contest,  in  fifty  years  from  this  time,  the  publication 
of  these  letters  would  create  trouble  between  the  descendants 
of  many  of  our  old  pioneer  families. 

There  is  a  danger  lurking  in  many  of  these  old  collec 
tions  where  you  would  not  suspect  it.  In  1851,  when  I 
wrote  the  first  or  preliminary  part  of  the  Bethel  church  his 
tory  from  your  old  family  notes,  now  generally  referred  to 
as  the  history  of  the  "  JefFerson-Lemen  Anti-Slavery  Pact," 
and  part  second  as  the  history  proper  of  the  church  in  the 
letter  which  was  simply  the  history  from  its  organization  in 
1809  to  my  pastorate  of  1851,  I  carefully  omitted  all  mention 
of  the  anti-slavery  contest  which  gave  the  church  its  origin. 


Documents  45 


I  did  this  so  that  that  part  of  its  history  could  then  be 
recorded  in  the  church  book,  which  could  not  have  been  done 
had  I  mentioned  the  anti-slavery  contest;  because  the  bitter 
ness  of  that  period  had  not  yet  fully  disappeared;  and  the  full 
history  of  the  church,  with  the  causes  creating,  and  the  re 
sults  flowing  from  its  organization,  if  recorded  or  published 
then,  would  have  aroused  considerable  ill  feeling  against 
the  church  in  some  parts  of  the  state.  So  part  second,  or 
the  history  proper,  was  only  recorded  at  that  time.  But 
having  lately  completed  part  third  of  the  Bethel  church 
history,  showing  the  results  of  its  organization,  I  sent  it 
with  a  copy  of  part  first,  or  the  history  of  the  Jefferson  Lemen 
Anti-Slavery  Pact,  to  our  worthy  and  noble  Christian 
brother,  the  Bethel  church  clerk,  James  H.  Lemen,  and  the 
other  brother  whose  name  you  suggested,  and  they  can 
place  them  in  safe  keeping  somewhere  until  after  your  old 
family  notes  are  published,  and  then  they  should  be  recorded 
in  the  church  book  with  the  church  history  proper  and  all  the 
papers  be  placed  with  the  other  church  papers.  I  shall  also 
send  them  a  copy  of  this  letter  to  be  finally  placed  with  the 
church  papers,  as  it  is  in  part  the  history  of  the  founder  of 
that  church,  all  parties  agreeing  that  your  father  created, 
though  of  course  he  did  not  formally  constitute,  it.  The 
old  church,  when  all  the  facts  become  known,  will  become 
noted  in  history,  as  it  stands  as  the  monument  of  the  contest 
which  began  by  putting  the  anti-slavery  clause  in  the 
Ordinance  of  1787,  and  which  concluded  by  making  Illinois 
and  her  neighboring  sisters  free  states. 

As  to  the  more  valuable  letters  in  your  family  notes  and 
collections,  I  have  kept  them  securely  for  you.  Douglas' 
and  Lincoln's  letters  take  very  correct  views  as  to  your 
father's  anti-slavery  labors,  and  Jefferson's  two  letters  to 
your  father  disclose  his  great  friendship  for  him,  and  show 
that  he  placed  the  greatest  confidence  and  trust  in  him. 
Poor  Lovejoy's  letter  reads  as  if  he  had  a  presentment  of 
his  coming  doom.  There  is  no  more  interesting  feature  in 
all  your  old  family  notes  than  Lincoln's  views  at  your  many 
meetings  with  him,  and  your  copy  of  his  prayer  is  beautiful. 
Some  of  his  views  on  Bible  themes  are  very  profound;  but 
then  he  is  a  very  profound  thinker.  It  now  looks  as  if  he 
would  become  a  national  leader.  Would  not  he  and  your 
father  have  enjoyed  a  meeting  on  the  slavery  question?  I 
put  all  the  letters  with  the  other  papers  you  gave  me  in  a 


46  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

safe  in  St.  Louis,  in  a  friend's  care,  where  I  sometimes  put 
my  papers.  Your  son,  Moses,  was  with  me  and  the  check 
is  given  in  his  name.  This  will  enable  you  to  tell  your 
friends  that  the  papers  are  not  now  in  your  custody,  and  they 
will  not  bother  you  to  see  them.  Hoping  to  see  you  soon, 
I  remain  as  ever.  Fraternally  yours, 

Rock  Spring,  111.     July  17,  1857.  J.  M.  PECK. 


PIONEER   LETTERS 
IX.     SENATOR   DOUGLAS'S   LETTER 

(From    Belleville    Advocate,    April    10,   1908.     Clipping,    I.B.H.C.,— Kll) 

Springfield,  Illinois.     Mar.  10,  1857 
Rev.  James  Lemen, 

Collinsville,  Illinois, 

Dear  Sir: — In  a  former  letter  I  wrote  you  fully  as  to  my 
views  as  to  the  "Jefferson-Lemen  Anti-Slavery  Pact,"  and 
that  there  is  no  doubt  but  that  the  anti-slavery  contest  of 

S^ur  father,  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  and  the  organizing  of 
ethel  church  as  one  of  the  results,  eventually  led  to  our 
free  state  constitution.  I  also  thank  you  again  for  the 
privilege  of  reading  Jefferson's  letters  to  your  father,  and 
other  papers  in  connection  with  the  matter,  but  desire  to  add 
a  thought  or  two,  or  more  properly  expound  [expand]  some 
points  in  my  recent  letter. 

The  anti-slavery  pact  or  agreement  between  the  two  men 
and  its  far  reaching  results  comprise  one  of  the  most  intensely 
interesting  chapters  in  our  national  and  state  histories.  Its 
profound  secrecy  and  the  splendid  loyalty  of  Jefferson's 
friends  which  preserved  it,  were  alike  necessary  to  the  success 
of  the  scheme  as  well  as  for  his  future  preferment;  for  had  it 
been  known  that  Jefferson  had  sent  Lemen  as  his  special 
agent  on  an  anti-slavery  mission  to  shape  matters  in  the 
territories  to  his  own  ends,  it  would  have  wrecked  his  pop 
ularity  in  the  South  and  rendered  Lemen's  mission  worse 
than  useless. 

It  has  always  been  a  mystery  why  the  pressing  demands 
of  Governor  Harrison  and  his  Council  for  the  repeal  of  the 
anti-slavery  clause  in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  which  excluded 


Documents  47 


slavery  from  the  Northwest  Territory,  could  make  no  head 
way  before  a  encession  [?]  of  pro-slavery  Congress;  but  the 
matter  is  now  clear.  The  great  Jefferson,  through  his 
confidential  leaders  in  Congress  [held  that  body  back,  until 
Mr.  Lemen,  under  his  orders],  had  rallied  his  friends  and 
sent  in  anti-slavery  petitions  demanding  the  maintenance 
of  the  clause,  when  the  Senate,  where  Harrison's  demands 
were  then  pending,  denied  them.  So  a  part  of  the  honor  of 
saving  that  grand  clause  which  dedicated  the  territory  to 
freedom,  belongs  to  your  father.  Indeed,  considering  Jef 
ferson's  ardent  friendship  for  him  and  his  admiration  and 
approval  of  his  early  anti-slavery  labors  in  Virginia,  which 
antedated  the  Ordinance  of  1787  by  several  years,  there  is 
but  little  doubt  but  that  your  father's  labors  were  a  factor  of 
influence  which  quickened  if  it  did  not  suggest  to  Jefferson 
the  original  purpose  which  finally  resulted  in  putting  the 
original  clause  in  the  Ordinance. 

This  matter  assumes  a  phase  of  personal  interest  with 
me,  and  I  find  myself,  politically,  in  the  good  company  of 
Jefferson  and  your  father.  With  them,  everything  turned  on 
whether  the  people  of  the  territory  wanted  slavery  or  not. 
Harrison  and  his  council  had  informed  Congress  that  the 
people  desired  it;  but  Jefferson  and  Lemen  doubted  it,  and 
when  the  latter  assisted  in  sending  in  great  anti-slavery 
petitions,  Jefferson's  friends  in  Congress  granted  the  people 
their  wish,  and  denied  Harrison's  pro-slavery  demands. 
That  is,  the  voice  and  wishes  of  the  people  in  the  territory 
were  heard  and  respected,  and  that  appears  to  me  to  be  the 
correct  doctrine. 

Should  you  or  your  family  approve  it,  I  would  suggest 
that  the  facts  of  the  "  Jefferson-Lemen  Anti-Slavery  Pact" 
be  fully  written  up  and  arranged  for  publication,  since  they 
embrace  some  exceedingly  important  state  and  national 
history,  and,  in  fact,  will  necessitate  a  new  or  larger  personal 
history  of  Jefferson,  as  these  facts  will  add  another  splendid 
chapter  to  the  great  story  of  his  marvellous  career.  If  you 
think  the  publication  of  Jefferson's  letters  and  suggestions 
to  your  father  would  rather  tend  to  dwarf  the  legitimate 
importance  of  his  great  religious  movement  in  the  formation 
of  our  early  churches,  on  account  of  the  wonderful  political 
results  of  the  "anti-slavery  pact"  it  would  be  sufficient  t ) 
command  belief  everywhere  just  to  simply  state  that  in  his 
anti-slavery  mission  and  contest  he  acted  under  Jefferson's 


48  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

advice  and  help;  because  the  consequences  were  so  im 
portant  and  far  reaching  that  it  is  self-evident  he  must 
have  had  some  great  and  all-prevailing  power  behind  him. 

I  was  greatly  pained  to  learn  of  your  illness,  in  your 
last  letter,  but  hope  this  will  find  you  comfortable. 

Yours  in  confidence, 

S.  A.  DOUGLAS. 

I  wrote  this  letter  in  Springfield,  but  by  an  over-sight 
neglected  to  mail  it  there.  But  if  you  write  me  in  a  fortnight, 
direct  to  Springfield,  as  I  expect  to  be  there  then. 

Yours  Secv.  [sic]  D. 


X.    ANNOUNCEMENT  BY  J.  B.  LEMEN 

(From  Belleville  Advocate,  April  17,  1908.     Clipping,  I.B.H.C.,— Kll) 

It  was  our  purpose  in  this  letter  [communication]  to 
send  the  Advocate  a  copy  of  one  of  Abraham  Lincoln's 
letters,  and  some  other  matter  from  him  and  Douglas,  from 
the  old  family  notes  of  Rev.  James  Lemen  never  yet  pub 
lished;  but  increased  illness,  and  their  greater  length,  pre 
vented  making  the  copy.  In  their  place,  however,  we  send 
a  copy  each  of  Governor  Edward's  and  Congressman  Sny- 
der's  letters.  The  prophetic  utterances  in  this  letter  as  to 
what  would  fall  on  Mexico's  treachery  and  slavery's  in 
solence,  were  so  literally  fulfilled  that  they  emphasized  anew 
Congressman  Snyder's  wonderful  capabilities  in  sizing  up 
public  questions  correctly  and  reading  the  coming  events 
of  the  future,  and  prove  him  to  have  been  a  statesman  of 
wonderful  powers.  The  next,  which  will  be  the  concluding 
article  in  this  series,  will  contain  the  copy  of  Lincoln's 
letter  and  the  other  matter  above  referred  to. 

The  typos  made  one  or  two  slight  errors  in  Senator 
Douglas's  letter  in  last  week's  issue.  For  "expound"  the 
reader  should  have  read  "expand,"  and  at  another  point  the 
letter  should  read  that  "Jefferson,  through  his  confidential 
leaders  in  Congress,  held  that  body  back  until  Mr.  Lemen, 
under  his  orders,  had  rallied  his  friends  and  sent  in  anti- 
slavery  petitions,  etc." 

[JOSEPH  B.  LEMEN.] 


Documents  49 


XL    GOV.    NINIAN    EDWARDS    TO    REV.    JAMES 

LEMEN. 

(From  Belleville  Advocate,  April  17,   1908.     Clipping,  I.B.H.C.— Kll) 

Vandalia,  111.,  Dec.  24,  1826. 
Rev.  James  Lemen, 

Collinsville,  Illinois, 

Dear  Sir: — Having  great  respect  for  your  influence  and 
reposing  perfect  confidence  in  your  capable  judgment  on 
public  affairs,  I  would  be  very  much  pleased  to  have  you  call 
as  soon  as  you  arrive  here,  as  I  desire  to  have  your  views  and 
advice  on  some  important  matters.  It  is  my  hope,  as  it  will 
be  my  pride,  that  the  term  upon  which  I  enter  shall  be 
marked  with  a  degree  of  educational  interest  and  progress 
not  hitherto  attained  in  our  young  commonwealth;  and  I 
wish  to  ask  for  your  counsel  and  aid  in  assisting  to  impress 
upon  the  General  Assembly  the  importance  of  such  subjects, 
and  the  necessity  of  some  further  and  better  legislation  on  our 
school  matters;  and  I  also  wish  to  consult  with  you  in  regard 
to  the  matter  of  the  proposed  Illinois  and  Michigan  Canal. 
Sincerely  your  friend, 

NINIAN  EDWARDS. 


XII.    HON.   ADAM  W.   SNYDER  TO  REV.  JAMES 

LEMEN. 

(From  Belleville  Advocate,  April  17,  1908.     Clipping,  I.B.H.C.— Kll) 

City  of  Washington,  Jan.  5,  1838. 
Rev.  James  Lemen, 

[Collinsville,  Illinois] 

My  Dear  Friend: — To  the  letter  which  I  wrote  you  a  few 
days  since  I  wish  to  add  that  the  members  of  the  Illinois 
delegation  in  Congress  have  read  the  letter  you  recently 
wrote  me,  and  they  are  all  willing  and  ready  to  assist  in 
pressing  the  cause  of  the  class  of  claimants  whom  you 
mentioned  upon  the  attention  of  the  government  for  a  more 
liberal  and  generous  allowance  of  lands.  I  have  no  further 
news  to  communicate,  except  that  I  believe  Mexico's  treach 
ery  and  insolence  will  sooner  or  later  call  down  upon  her 
a  severe  chastisement  from  this  country;  and  that  our  South 
ern  friends  in  Congress  are  growing  exasperatingly  and 
needlessly  sensitive  on  the  slavery  question,  claiming  that 


50  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

Jefferson's  views  would  sustain  their  positions,  not  know 
ing  the  splendid  secret  of  your  father's  (Rev.  James  Lemen, 
Sr.)  anti-slavery  mission  under  Jefferson's  orders  and  ad 
vice,  which  saved  Illinois  and  we  might  say  the  Northwest 
Territory,  to  freedom.  In  fact,  the  demands  of  slavery,  if 
not  controlled  by  its  friends,  will  eventually  put  the  country 
into  a  mood  that  will  no  longer  brook  its  insolence  and  greed. 
Yours  in  esteem  and  confidence, 

A.  W.  SNYDER. 

XIII.    ABRAHAM   LINCOLN'S   LETTER 

Belleville  Weekly  Advocate,  April  24,  1908 

The  following  letter  and  remarks  from  Abraham  Lincoln, 
hitherto  unpublished,  comprise  the  fifth  letter  of  the  series  of 
old  "Pioneer  Letters"  which  Mr.  J.  B.  Lemen  of  O'Fallon 
is  sending  to  the  Advocate. — Ed. 

Springfield,  Illinois.     March  2,  1857. 
Rev.  James  Lemen, 

[O'Fallon,  Illinois,] 

Friend  Lemen:  Thanking  you  for  your  warm  apprecia 
tion  of  my  views  in  a  former  letter  as  to  the  importance  in 
many  features  of  your  collection  of  old  family  notes  and 
papers,  I  will  add  a  few  words  more  as  to  Elijah  P.  Lovejoy's 
case.  His  letters  among  your  old  family  notes  were  of  more 
interest  to  me  than  even  those  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  written 
to  your  father.  Of  course  they  [the  latter]  were  exceedingly 
important  as  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  "Jefferson-Lemen 
Anti-Slavery  Pact,"  under  which  your  father,  Rev.  James 
Lemen,  Sr.,  as  Jefferson's  anti-slavery  agent  in  Illinois, 
founded  his  anti-slavery  churches,  among  which  was  the 
present  Bethel  church,  which  set  in  motion  the  forces  which 
finally  made  Illinois  a  free  state,  all  of  which  was  splendid; 
but  Lovejoy's  tragic  death  for  freedom  in  every  sense  marked 
his  sad  ending  as  the  most  important  single  event  that  ever 
happened  in  the  new  world. 

Both  your  father  and  Lovejoy  were  pioneer  leaders  in  the 
cause  of  freedom,  and  it  has  always  been  difficult  for  me  to 
see  why  your  father,  who  wTas  a  resolute,  uncompromising, 
and  aggressive  leader,  who  boldly  proclaimed  his  purpose 
to  make  both  the  territory  and  the  state  free,  never  aroused 
nor  encountered  any  of  that  mob  violence  which  both  in 


Documents  5 1 


St.  Louis  and  Alton  confronted  or  pursued  Lovejoy,  and 
which  finally  doomed  him  to  a  felon's  death  and  a  martyr's 
crown.  Perhaps  the  two  cases  are  a  little  parallel  with 
those  of  John  and  Peter.  John  was  bold  and  fearless  at  the 
scene  of  the  Crucifixion,  standing  near  the  cross  receiving 
the  Savior's  request  to  care  for  his  mother,  but  was  not 
annoyed;  while  Peter,  whose  disposition  to  shrink  from 
public  view,  seemed  to  catch  the  attention  of  members  of 
the  mob  on  every  hand,  until  finally  to  throw  public  attention 
off,  he  denied  his  master  with  an  oath;  though  later  the  grand 
old  apostle  redeemed  himself  grandly,  and  like  Lovejoy, 
died  a  martyr  to  his  faith.  Of  course,  there  was  no  similarity 
between  Peter's  treachery  at  the  Temple  and  Lovejoy's 
splendid  courage  when  the  pitiless  mob  were  closing  around 
him.  But  in  the  cases  of  the  two  apostles  at  the  scene 
mentioned,  John  was  more  prominent  or  loyal  in  his  presence 
and  attention  to  the  Great  Master  than  Peter  was,  but  the 
latter  seemed  to  catch  the  attention  of  the  mob;  and  as 
Lovejoy,  one  of  the  most  inoffensive  of  men,  for  merely 
printing  a  small  paper,  devoted  to  the  freedom  of  the  body 
and  mind  of  man,  was  pursued  to  his  death;  while  his  older 
comrade  in  the  cause  of  freedom,  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr., 
who  boldly  and  aggressively  proclaimed  his  purpose  to  make 
both  the  territory  and  the  state  free,  was  never  molested 
a  moment  by  the  minions  of  violence.  The  madness  and 
pitiless  determination  with  which  the  mob  steadily  pursued 
Lovejoy  to  his  doom,  marks  it  as  one  of  the  most  unreasoning 
and  unreasonable  in  all  time,  except  that  which  doomed  the 
Savior  to  the  cross. 

If  ever  you  should  come  to  Springfield  again,  do  not  fail 
to  call.  The  memory  of  our  many  ''evening  sittings"  here 
and  elsewhere,  as  we  called  them,  suggests  many  a  pleasant 
hour,  both  pleasant  and  helpful.  Truly  yours, 

A.  LINCOLN. 

XIV.      THE     LEMEN     MONUMENT     AND     REV. 
LEMEN'S   PART   IN   EARLY   ILLINOIS   HISTORY 

(From  Belleville  Advocate,  Tuesday,  April  6, 1909.  Clipping  in 
I.B.H.C.-K11) 

The  monument  to  be  erected  by  the  Baptist  people  of 
Illinois  and  others  at  the  grave  of  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr., 
near  Waterloo  in  Monroe  county,  is  not  only  to  honor  his 


52 The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

memory  as  a  revolutionary  soldier,  territorial  leader,  Indian 
fighter,  and  founder  of  the  Baptist  cause  in  Illinois,  but  it  is 
also  in  remembrance  of  the  fact  that  he  was  the  companion 
and  co-worker  with  Thomas  Jefferson  in  setting  in  motion 
the  forces  which  finally  recorded  the  anti-slavery  clause  in 
the  Ordinance  of  1787,  which  dedicated  the  great  Northwest 
territory  to  freedom  and  later  gave  Illinois  a  free  state 
constitution. 

Only  recently  the  Society  of  the  Sons  of  the  Revolution 
in  Chicago,  after  a  critical  examination  of  James  Lemen's 
military  and  civil  record,  by  unanimous  vote,  appropriated 
twenty-five  dollars  for  his  monument  fund;  and  we  give 
below  a  copy  of  the  papers  which  they  used  and  which  will 
interest  our  readers,  the  first  being  Gen.  Ainsworth's  letter: 

WAR   DEPARTMENT 
ADJUTANT  GENERAL'S  OFFICE 

Washington,  Feb.  13,  1908. 

The  records  show  tnat  James  Lemen  served  as  private 
in  Captain  George  Wall's  Company  of  the  Fourth  Virginia 
Regiment,  commanded  at  various  times  by  Major  Isaac 
Beall  and  Colonels  James  Wood  and  John  Neville  in  the 
Revolutionary  war.  Term  of  enlistment,  one  year  from 
March  3,  1778. 

F.  C.  AINSWORTH,  Adjt.  Gen. 

("In  January  1779,  James  Lemen  had  his  term  of  en 
listment  extended  for  two  years  and  was  transferred  to 
another  regiment.  After  his  term  expired  he  rejoined  his  old 
regiment  and  served  through  the  siege  at  Yorktown.  He  was 
in  several  engagements.")  [J.  B.  L.] 


XV.    REV.  JAMES  LEMEN,   SR. 

(Written  by  Rev.  John  M.  Peck,  in  1857.     Published  in  Belleville  Advocate, 
April  6,  1909.     Clipping  in  I.B.H.C.— Kll) 

Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  a  son  of  Nicholas  Lemen  and 
Christian  Lemen,  his  wife,  was  born  at  the  family  home  near 
Harper's  Ferry,  Virginia,  on  November  20,  1760.  He 
acquired  a  practical  education  and  in  early  manhood  married 
Miss  Katherine  Ogle,  of  Virginia,  and  they  reared  a  family. 
He  enlisted  for  a  year  as  a  soldier  of  the  Revolutionary  War, 
on  March  3,  1778,  but  had  his  term  extended  to  two  years, 


Documents  53 


and  was  in  several  engagements.  Sometime  after  his  en 
listment  expired  he  rejoined  his  old  comrades  and  served 
through  the  siege  at  Yorktown. 

From  childhood,  in  a  singular  manner,  James  Lemen  was 
the  special  favorite  and  idol  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  who  was  a 
warm  friend  of  his  father's  family.  Almost  before  Mr. 
Lemen  had  reached  manhood,  Jefferson  would  consult  him 
on  all  matters,  even  on  great  state  affairs,  and  afterwards 
stated  that  Mr.  Lemen's  advice  always  proved  to  be  sur 
prisingly  reliable. 

Our  subject  was  a  born  anti-slavery  leader,  and  by  his 
Christian  and  friendly  arguments  he  induced  scores  of 
masters  in  Virginia  to  free  their  slaves;  this  quickly  caught 
Jefferson's  attention  and  he  freely  confessed  that  Mr. 
Lemen's  influence  on  him  had  redoubled  his  dislike  for  slavery 
and,  though  himself  a  slaveholder,  he  most  earnestly  de 
nounced  the  institution.  The  following  paragraphs  from 
a  letter  he  wrote  to  James  Lemen's  brother,  Robert,  who 
then  lived  near  Harper's  Ferry,  Virginia,  on  September  10, 
1807,  will  disclose  that  Mr.  Lemen's  influence  was  largely 
concerned  in  connection  with  Jefferson's  share  in  the  Or 
dinance  of  1787,  in  its  anti-slavery  clause.  The  paragraph 
is  as  follows: — 

"If  your  brother,  James  Lemen,  should  visit  Virginia 
soon,  as  I  learn  he  possibly  may,  do  not  let  him  return  until 
he  makes  me  a  visit.  I  will  also  write  him  to  be  sure  and 
see  me.  5Among  all  my  friends  who  are  near,  he  is  still  a 
little  nearer.  I  discovered  his  worth  when  he  was  but  a 
child  and  I  freely  confess  that  in  some  of  my  most  important 
achievements  his  example,  wish,  and  advice,  though  then 
but  a  very  young  man,  largely  influenced  my  action.  This 
was  particularly  true  as  to  whatever  share  I  may  have  had 
in  the  transfer  of  our  great  Northwestern  Territory  to  the 
United  States,  and  especially  for  the  fact  that  I  was  so  well 
pleased  with  the  anti-slavery  clause  inserted  later  in  the 
Ordinance  of  1787.  Before  any  one  had  ever  mentioned  the 
matter,  James  Lemen,  by  reason  of  his  devotion  to  anti- 
slavery  principles,  suggested  to  me  that  we  (yirginia)  make 
the  transfer  and  that  slavery  be  excluded;  and  it  so  impressed 
and  influenced  me  that  whatever  is  due  me  as  credit  for  my 
share  in  the  matter  is  largely,  if  not  wholly,  due  to  James 
Lemen's  advice  and  most  righteous  counsel.  18His  record 
in  the  new  country  has  fully  justified  my  course  in  inducing 


54 The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

him  to  settle  there  with  the  view  of  properly  shaping  events 
in  the  best  interest  of  the  people.  If  he  comes  to  Virginia, 
see  that  he  calls  on  me." 

James  Lemen  did  not  visit  Virginia  and  President  Jef 
ferson  did  not  get  to  see  him,  but  his  letters  to  him  showed 
what  a  great  affection  he  had  for  his  friend  and  agent.  On 
May  2,  1778  [1784],  at  Annapolis,  Md.,  Thomas  Jefferson 
and  James  Lemen  made  their  final  agreement  under  which 
he  was  to  settle  in  Illinois  to  shape  matters  after  Jefferson's 
wishes,  but  always  in  the  people's  interest  and  for  freedom, 
and  particularly,  to  uphold  the  anti-slavery  policy  promised 
by  Jefferson  and  later  confirmed  by  the  anti-slavery  clause 
in  the  Ordinance  of  1787  which  principle  both  Jefferson  and 
Mr.  Lemen  expected  would  finally  be  assailed  by  the  pro- 
slavery  power,  and  the  facts  confirmed  their  judgment.  In 
1786  Mr.  Lemen  with  his  wife  and  young  family  settled 
finally  at  New  Design,  now  in  Monroe  county.  3He  was 
a  judge  under  the  early  Territorial  law.  He  finally  united 
with  the  Baptist  church  and  immediately  set  about  collecting 
the  Baptists  into  churches,  having  the  first  church  constituted 
at  his  house. 

Mr.  Lemen  created  the  first  eight  Baptist  churches  in 
Illinois,  having  them  especially  declare  against  slavery  and 
intemperance.  When  General  William  Henry  Harrison 
became  Governor,  he  and  his  Territorial  Council  went 
over  to  pro-slavery  influences  and  demands,  and  carried 
Mr.  Lemen's  seven  churches,  which  he  had  then  created, 
with  them.  For  some  months  he  labored  to  call  them  to 
anti-slavery  grounds,  but  failing,  he  declared  for  a  division 
and  created  his  eighth  church,  now  Bethel  church,  near 
Collinsville,  on  strictly  anti-slavery  grounds;  and  this  event 
opened  the  anti-slavery  contest  in  1809  which  finally  in  1818 
led  to  the  election  of  an  anti-slavery  Convention  which  gave 
Illinois  a  free  state  constitution.  32Jefferson  warmly  ap 
proved  Mr.  Lemen's  movement  and  sent  his  new  church 
twenty  dollars,  which,  with  a  fund  the  members  collected 
and  gave,  was  finally  transferred  to  the  church  treasury 
without  disclosing  Jefferson's  identity.  This  was  done  in 
order  not  to  disturb  his  friendly  relations  with  the  extreme 
South.  But  Jefferson  made  no  secret  of  his  antipathy  for 
slavery,  though  unwilling  that  the  fact  should  be  known  that 
he  sent  James  Lemen  to  the  new  country  especially 
to  defend  it  against  slavery,  as  he  knew  it  would  arouse 


Documents  55 


the  resentment  of  the  extreme  pro-slavery  element 
against  both  him  and  his  agent  and  probably  defeat 
their  movement. 

24James  Lemen  also  first  suggested  the  plan  to  extend 
the  boundary  of  Illinois  northward  to  give  more  territory 
and  better  shape,  and  had  a  government  surveyor  make  a 
map  showing  the  great  advantages  and  gave  them  to  Na 
thaniel  Pope,  our  territorial  delegate,  asking  him  to  present 
the  matter,  which  he  did,  and  Congress  adopted  the  plan. 
The  extension  gave  the  additional  territory  for  fourteen 
counties  and  Chicago  is  included. 

James  Lemen  was  a  noted  Indian  fighter  in  Illinois, 
ever  ready  with  his  trusty  rifle  to  defend  the  homes  of  the 
early  settlers  against  the  savage  foe,  and  in  every  way  he 
fully  justified  Jefferson's  judgment  in  sending  him  to  look 
after  the  best  interests  of  the  people  in  the  new  territory. 

Mr.  Lemen  possessed  every  moral  and  mental  attribute 
in  a  high  degree,  and  if  any  one  was  more  marked  than  an 
other  it  was  his  incomparable  instinct  against  oppression, 
which  his  wonderful  anti-slavery  record  accentuated  as  his 
chief  endowment,  though  in  all  respects  he  was  well  equipped 
for  a  leader  among  men.  That  instinct,  it  might  be  said, 
fixed  his  destiny.  At  Jefferson's  request  he  settled  in  the 
new  territory  to  finally  oppose  slavery.  That  was  before  the 
Ordinance  of  1787  with  its  anti-slavery  clause,  but  Mr. 
Lemen  had  Jefferson's  assurance  beforehand  that  the 
territory  should  be  dedicated  to  freedom;  though  they  both 
believed  the  pro-slavery  power  would  finally  press  for  its 
demands  before  stated,  and  the  facts  proved  they  were  right. 
The  reasons  which  necessitated  the  secrecy  of  the  Jefferson- 
Lemen  anti-slavery  pact  of  May  2,  1784,  under  which  Mr. 
Lemen  came  to  Illinois  on  his  anti-slavery  mission  at  Jef 
ferson's  wish,  and  which  was  absolutely  necessary  to  its 
success  at  first,  no  longer  exists;  and  the  fear  of  James 
Lemen's  sons  that  its  publication  would  so  overshadow  his 
great  church  work  in  Illinois  with  Jefferson's  wonderful 
personality,  as  to  dwarf  his  merits,  is  largely  groundless. 
Senator  Douglas,  who  with  others  is  familiar  with  all  the 
facts,  says  that  when  the  matter  is  fully  published  and  well 
known,  it  will  give  to  both  Mr.  Lemen  and  Jefferson  their 
proper  shares  of  credit  and  fame;  and,  while  it  will  add  a  new 
star  to  Jefferson's  splendid  fame,  it  will  carry  James  Lemen 
along  with  him  as  his  worthy  co-worker  and  companion. 


56 The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

The  subject  of  our  sketch  died  at  his  home  near  Water 
loo,  Monroe  county,  on  January  8th,  1823,  and  was  buried 
in  the  family  cemetery  near  by. 


XVI.    OLD  LEMEN  FAMILY  NOTES,  JAMES  LEMEN 
HISTORY,  AND  SOME  RELATED  FACTS 

(MS.  Document  in  I.B.H.C. ,— C102.     By  Jos.  B.  Lemen) 

In  1857,  to  save  the  old  "Lemen  Family  Notes"  from 
loss  by  careless  but  persistent  borrowers,  Dr.  B.  F.  Edwards, 
of  St.  Louis,  and  Rev.  J.  M.  Peck,  advised  Rev.  James  Lem 
en,  Jr.,  to  make  copies  of  all  and  then  give  the  original  stock 
to  a  friend  whom  they  named  to  keep  as  his  own  in  a  safe 
vault  in  St.  Louis,  if  he  would  pay  all  storage  charges.  But 
at  that  time  he  only  gave  the  most  important  ones  to  Rev. 

i.  M.  Peck  to  place  temporarily  in  a  safe  in  St.  Louis  where 
e  sometimes  kept  his  own  papers;  though  some  years  later 
he  acted  on  their  advice  and  making  copies  of  all  papers 
and  letters  of  any  value,  gave  the  whole  original  stock  to  the 
party  mentioned  (we  do  not  recall  his  name,  but  it  is  among 
our  papers)  [possibly  the  J.  M.  Smith  mentioned  in  Dr. 
Peck's  communication  to  James  Lemen,  Jr.,  July  17,  1857] 
and  he  placed  them  in  the  safe.  Shortly  after  this  their 
holder  died,  and  they  passed  into  the  hands  of  others  who 
removed  them  to  another  safe  somewhere  in  St.  Louis; 
but  having  no  further  title  in  the  papers,  and  having  copies 
of  all  for  use,  the  family  finally  lost  all  traces  of  the  papers 
and  the  parties  holding  them,  and  have  only  heard  from  them 
two  or  three  times  in  more  than  40  years. 

A  few  years  ago,  when  a  history  of  Rev.  James  Lemen, 
Jr.,  and  his  father,  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  was  in  contem 
plation,  a  reputed  agent  of  the  parties  whom  he  then  claimed 
held  the  old  family  notes,  informed  us  that  the  family  could 
have  them  at  any  time  they  wished;  and  we  promised  some 
of  our  friends  who  wished  to  see  them  that  after  we  had  used 
them  in  connection  with  the  proposed  history,  the  old  stock 
of  papers  would  be  placed  where  they  could  see  and  copy 
them,  if  they  wished.  It  was  intended  to  have  a  few  of  the 
more  important  letters  photographed  for  the  James  Lemen 
history;  though  it  was  said  that  some  years  before  some  one 
had  a  few  of  them  photographed  and  they  were  so  indistinct 
as  to  be  worthless;  but  we  hoped  for  better  results.  But 


Documents  57 


it  finally  developed  that  the  reputed  agent  would  expect  us 
to  pay  him  (contrary  to  our  first  impressions)  quite  a  round 
sum  of  money  for  the  restoration  and  use  of  the  papers 
before  he  would  deliver  them  to  us.  This  awakened  sus 
picions  as  to  his  reliability  and  a  detective,  to  whom  we 
sent  his  name  and  number  for  investigation,  informed  us 
that  no  such  man  could  be  found;  and  undoubtedly  he  was 
some  dishonest  person  seeking  to  obtain  money  under  false 
pretenses.  And  so  the  family,  as  for  many  years  past,  now 
knows  nothing  as  to  the  parties  who  hold  the  papers  or 
where  they  are.  A  singular  fatality  seems  to  have  awaited 
all  the  papers  placed  at  Dr.  Peck's  disposal  or  advice.  His 
own  papers  were  generally  destroyed  or  lost,  and  the  old 
"Lemen  Family  Notes"  placed  some  years  after  his  death, 
partly  as  he  had  advised,  cannot  be  found.  But  while 
Dr.  Peck's  lost  papers  are  a  distinct  and  irreparable  loss,  no 
loss  is  sustained  in  the  misplacement  of  the  old  Lemen  notes, 
as  every  line  or  fact  of  any  value  in  them  was  copied  and  the 
copies  are  all  preserved;  and  nearly  all  the  more  important 
ones  have  been  published,  except  a  very  few,  including  Rev. 
James  Lemen's  interviews  with  Lincoln,  as  written  up  by  Mr. 
Lemen  on  ten  pages  of  legal  cap  paper,  and  that  paper  will 
probably  be  published  soon,  if  it  is  not  held  specially  for 
the  James  Lemen  history. 

As  to  that  history,  it  will  be  delayed  for  some  time,  as 
the  writer,  who  was  expected  to  see  to  its  preparation,  was 
named  by  the  State  Baptist  Convention  as  a  member  of  the 
Baptist  State  Committee  to  assist  with  the  James  Lemen 
monument;  and  much  of  the  matter  intended  for  the  history 
was  published  in  connection  with  the  labors  of  the  State 
Committee.  One  object  of  the  history  was  to  secure  or  to 
influence  that  degree  of  recognition  of  the  importance  of  the 
services  of  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.  and  his  sons,  with  a  few 
co-workers  of  the  latter,  in  the  early  history  and  interests 
of  both  the  Baptist  cause  and  the  State,  on  the  part  of  the 
Baptists,  to  which  the  family  thought  them  entitled.  But 
since  the  Baptists,  the  "Sons  of  the  Revolution,"  and  others 
have  placed  a  monument  at  the  grave  of  the  old  State  leader 
and  Baptist  pioneer,  the  Rev.  James  Lemen,  Sr.,  it  is  felt  that 
the  object  for  making  the  history  has  already  been  in  part 
realized.  Another  circumstance  which  has  delayed  it,  is 
the  poor  health  of  the  writer;  so  the  prospect  is  that  the 
making  of  the  history  will  be  delayed  for  some  time. 


58  The  Jefferson-Lemen  Compact 

This  is  written  entirely  from  memory,  as  the  papers  and 
dates  to  which  we  refer  are  not  before  me,  but  we  will  retain 
a  copy  and  if  there  proves  to  be  any  errors  in  this  one, 
we  will  have  them  corrected.  There  was  such  a  demand  for 
them  that  some  of  Dr.  Peck's,  Lovejoy's,  Douglas's,  Lin 
coln's  and  some  other  letters  were  published,  and  some  of 
them  are  included  in  the  papers  we  send. 

Some  years  ago  some  one  claimed  that  the  old  family 
notes  had  been  found,  which  led  to  statements  in  the  papers 
that  they  would  soon  be  placed  where  people  could  see  and 
read  them;  but  it  proved  to  be  a  mistake.  For  the  loss  of 
the  papers  the  family  do  not  believe  there  was  any  fault  with 
the  parties  originally  holding  them,  as  in  fact  they  had  the 
right  to  hold  them  where  they  pleased,  according  to  the 
agreement;  but  that  from  sudden  deaths  and  other  cir 
cumstances,  they  were  misplaced. 

It  should  be  added  that  every  paper  of  any  value, 
which  was  given  to  the  St.  Louis  parties  to  hold  was  copied 
and  the  copies  preserved,  except  mere  personal,  friendship 
letters,  and  of  these  there  was  quite  a  large  stock;  also  that 
much  of  Dr.  Peck's  writings  and  many  letters  of  his  and 
others  were  loaned  out  and  could  not  be  given  to  the  St. 
Louis  parties  to  keep,  but  all  of  any  real  value  have  been 
copied  or  published,  except  the  Lemen-Lincoln  interviews 
and  some  others,  and  that  even  some  of  these  copies  are 
loaned  out,  among  them  copies  of  letters  from  Dr.  Peck, 
Douglas,  Lincoln,  Lovejoy,  if  I  recall  correctly,  and  others; 
though  the  facts  or  information  in  them  have  already  been 
published,  except  such  facts  as  will  be  held  for  the  James 
Lemen  history,  and  we  have  copies  of  them,  so  nothing  will 
be  lost. 

(Signed)  JOSEPH  B.  LEMEN. 
O'Fallon,  Illinois, 
January  10,  1911. 

[N.    B.     The    above    communication    accompanied    the 

fift  of  the  walnut  chest  made  by  the  elder  James  Lemen  at 
t.  Piggott,  which  was  sent  to  the  custodian  of  the  Baptist 
Historical  Collection  at  Shurtleff  College,  early  in  the  year 
1913 — COMPILER.] 


REFERENCES 

1.  See  p.  26. 

2.  Reynolds  "My  Own  Times"  and  "Pioneer  History  of  Illinois." 

3.  See    "Territorial    Records    of  Illinois"    (Illinois    State    Historical 

Library,  Publication,  III.),  and  compare  p.  54  post, 

4.  See  Biographical  sketches  in  "Lemen  Family  History." 

5.  See  pp.  33,  53. 

6.  See  pp.  27,  28. 

7.  See  pp.  23,  42,  56. 

8.  Peck,  J.  M.,  "Annals  of  the  West,"  in  loco. 

9.  See  p.  54  post,  and  Hinsdale,  "Old  Northwest." 

10.  Alvord,  "Cahokia  Records,"  Introduction. 

11.  Reynolds,  "My  Own  Times,"  p.  208. 

12.  McMaster,  "People  of  United  States,"  II:  30,  31;  III:  108;  St.  Clair 

Papers. 

13.  Blake,  "History  of  Slavery,"  p.  431. 

14.  See  p.  29. 

15.  See  p.  30,  and  compare  No.  16  below. 

16.  Blake,  "History  of  Slavery,"  in  loco. 

17.  See  pp.  35,  36,  43. 

18.  See  p.  53. 

19.  See  p.  30. 

20.  See  p.  30,  and  compare,  Patterson,  "Early  Illinois,"  Fergus  Histori 

cal  Coll.,  No.  14,  pp.  141-2. 

21.  See  pp.  30,  35. 

22.  Reynolds,  "My  Own  Times,"  p.  170. 

23.  See  p.  36. 

24.  See  p.  55,  and  compare  reference  No.  19. 

25.  See  p.  37. 

26.  See  "Centennial  History  of  Madison  Co.,"  I:  52-55. 

27.  See  p.  38. 

28.  See  p.  47. 

29.  See  p.  50. 

30.  Seep.  34. 

31.  See  p.  41. 

32.  Seep.  54. 

33.  Cf.  Smith,  J.  A.,  "History  of  the  Baptists,"  p.  40;  Benedict,  "His 

tory  of  the  Baptists,"  II:  246-8. 

34.  Seep.  39. 

35.  See  pp.  42,  56  and  Peck,  J.  M.,  "Father  Clark,"  in  loco. 


RECT3TS1JRN5- 


